SELECT

The SELECT form of results returns variables and their bindings directly. It combines the operations of projecting the required variables with introducing new variable bindings into a query solution.

Projection

Specific variables and their bindings are returned when a list of variable names is given in the SELECT clause. The syntax SELECT * is an abbreviation that selects all of the variables that are in-scope at that point in the query. It excludes variables only used in FILTER, in the right-hand side of MINUS, and takes account of subqueries.

Use of SELECT * is only permitted when the query does not have a GROUP BY clause.

@prefix  foaf:  <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

_:a    foaf:name   "Alice" .
_:a    foaf:knows  _:b .
_:a    foaf:knows  _:c .

_:b    foaf:name   "Bob" .

_:c    foaf:name   "Clare" .
_:c    foaf:nick   "CT" .

PREFIX foaf:    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/>
SELECT ?nameX ?nameY ?nickY
WHERE
  { ?x foaf:knows ?y ;
       foaf:name ?nameX .
    ?y foaf:name ?nameY .
    OPTIONAL { ?y foaf:nick ?nickY }
  }

nameX	nameY	nickY
"Alice"	"Bob"
"Alice"	"Clare"	"CT"

Result sets can be accessed by a local API but also can be serialized into either JSON, XML, CSV or TSV.

SPARQL 1.1 Query Results JSON Format:

{
  "head": {
    "vars": [ "nameX" , "nameY" , "nickY" ]
  } ,
  "results": {
    "bindings": [
      {
        "nameX": { "type": "literal" , "value": "Alice" } ,
        "nameY": { "type": "literal" , "value": "Bob" }
      } ,
      {
        "nameX": { "type": "literal" , "value": "Alice" } ,
        "nameY": { "type": "literal" , "value": "Clare" } ,
        "nickY": { "type": "literal" , "value": "CT" }
      }
    ]
  }
}

SPARQL Query Results XML Format:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<sparql xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/sparql-results#">
  <head>
    <variable name="nameX"/>
    <variable name="nameY"/>
    <variable name="nickY"/>
  </head>
  <results>
    <result>
      <binding name="nameX">
        <literal>Alice</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nameY">
        <literal>Bob</literal>
      </binding>
   </result>
    <result>
      <binding name="nameX">
        <literal>Alice</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nameY">
        <literal>Clare</literal>
      </binding>
      <binding name="nickY">
        <literal>CT</literal>
      </binding>
    </result>
  </results>
</sparql>

SELECT Expressions

As well as choosing which variables from the pattern matching are included in the results, the SELECT clause can also introduce new variables. The rules of assignment in SELECT expression are the same as for assignment in BIND. The expression combines variable bindings already in the query solution, or defined earlier in the SELECT clause, to produce a binding in the query solution.

The scoping for (expr AS v) applies immediately. In SELECT expressions, the variable may be used in an expression later in the same SELECT clause and may not be be assigned again in the same SELECT clause.

Example:

Data:

@prefix dc:   <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> .
@prefix :     <http://example.org/book/> .
@prefix ns:   <http://example.org/ns#> .

:book1  dc:title  "SPARQL Tutorial" .
:book1  ns:price  42 .
:book1  ns:discount 0.2 .

:book2  dc:title  "The Semantic Web" .
:book2  ns:price  23 .
:book2  ns:discount 0.25 .

Query:

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX  ns:  <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT  ?title (?p*(1-?discount) AS ?price)
{ ?x ns:price ?p .
  ?x dc:title ?title . 
  ?x ns:discount ?discount 
}

Results:

title	price
"The Semantic Web"	17.25
"SPARQL Tutorial"	33.6

New variables can also be used in expressions if they are introduced earlier, syntactically, in the same SELECT clause:

PREFIX  dc:  <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>
PREFIX  ns:  <http://example.org/ns#>
SELECT  ?title (?p AS ?fullPrice) (?fullPrice*(1-?discount) AS ?customerPrice)
{ ?x ns:price ?p .
   ?x dc:title ?title . 
   ?x ns:discount ?discount 
}

Results:

title	fullPrice	customerPrice
"The Semantic Web"	23	17.25
"SPARQL Tutorial"	42	33.6

SELECT

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SELECT Expressions

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