Wikimedian in Residence

Using Wikidata

An overview of the different ways you can use the data on Wikidata.

Wikidata Query Service 

SPARQL is a programming language for querying linked data stored on the web. It is essentially a set of commands that allow you to find exactly the data you want. 

Learning SPARQL will allow you to query the information stored in Wikidata but also the countless other data sources offering a SPARQL query service. 

For example, you could ask for a list of humans without children and this will use the item for human (Q5) and the properties 'instance of' (P31) and 'child' (P40). See here for the results of this query.

A video on using the Wikidata Query Service by Dr Chris Langley, Reader in Early Modern History at Newman University, Birmingham, and Co-Director of Mapping the Scottish Reformation.

Here is the link to build a SPARQL query.

Video: How to use the Wikidata Query Service
A video on using the Wikidata Query Service by Dr Chris Langley, Reader in Early Modern History at Newman University, Birmingham, and Co-Director of Mapping the Scottish Reformation.

Further Resources

© Ewan McAndrew and Hannah Rothmann, University of Edinburgh, 2020, CC BY-SA 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.