| s | p_blank | o_blank |
|---|---|---|
| /id/statistical-geography/S01008520 | http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type | geosparql: Geometry |
| /id/statistical-geography/S01008520 | geosparql: asWKT | MULTIPOLYGON (((-3.210084520751634 55.91992960045733, -3.2113340252014506 55.91843470157198, -3.206014521107306 55.9181633619862, -3.205630946207958 55.91832416716075, -3.2022672281502724 55.918622396220684, -3.200556011404339 55.91916923728826, -3.2003500612304774 55.91820080778296, -3.202323569496783 55.917858075896014, -3.203571172527987 55.91737130842935, -3.2033449371305043 55.91547041880093, -3.2046774925838237 55.91533709111141, -3.2044624311799725 55.91459339510982, -3.2059210101427804 55.914677960401384, -3.207943949228178 55.91438856621568, -3.207511410579884 55.91334149082773, -3.210320530789542 55.91261304756249, -3.210960032644921 55.91208559807116, -3.212989530677528 55.91201170876439, -3.2134205315129982 55.91249268212584, -3.2135552120940996 55.91424353766811, -3.2132445835263073 55.917104003318784, -3.2128312025826635 55.91923764967387, -3.212185150212497 55.92058285657679, -3.210960142374191 55.919786210044016, -3.210084520751634 55.91992960045733)), ((-3.210084520751634 55.91992960045733, -3.2090483098815894 55.920568756953266, -3.2082061369493995 55.92024456655725, -3.203200697304196 55.92094355088066, -3.202505697191546 55.92152030035087, -3.2025315087410036 55.92095605364969, -3.19920324210216 55.92096155227677, -3.1974627243568636 55.92211965016964, -3.196338728256209 55.92199579150628, -3.1952607560839716 55.921287417197355, -3.1942628360473937 55.92109941737066, -3.192308673071264 55.92103748316289, -3.1907326877798217 55.920262006256415, -3.1910680907198143 55.91971963175967, -3.193895128664442 55.920069648092415, -3.194196610345811 55.92050701535034, -3.1958988958940555 55.92018498832124, -3.196689115463384 55.92038398785576, -3.197702675286126 55.92004166101348, -3.1994121246844016 55.919953139155545, -3.2001418305254012 55.92036464760394, -3.2016952624470774 55.92008296996364, -3.2027230629372787 55.92016177609873, -3.20628110816767 55.91973995884018, -3.2098923838949203 55.91951603291166, -3.210084520751634 55.91992960045733))) |
The most flexible way to access the data is by using SPARQL, a query language, analagous to SQL for relational databases, for retrieving and manipulating data from graph databases like ours. We support SPARQL 1.1 query syntax. Many online tutorials are available.
To submit a SPARQL query from your code, you issue an HTTP GET or POST to our endpoint:http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql, with the query itself as a url-encoded parameter called query.
For example, to run the following simple SPARQL query and get the results as JSON:
SELECT * WHERE {?s ?p ?o} LIMIT 10Issue a POST to the endpoint, with the query in the body, and an Accept header of sparql-results+json:
POST http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql HTTP/1.1
Host: statistics.gov.scot
Accept: application/sparql-results+json
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
query=SELECT+%2A+WHERE+%7B%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%7D+LIMIT+10Issue a GET to the following URL (note the .json extension - see the formats section for more detail on this):
GET http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql.json?query=SELECT+%2A+WHERE+%7B%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%7D+LIMIT+10Scroll down to the end of this page for examples of both of these methods in a few different languages.
As with other aspects of our API, to get the data in different formats, you can use either (a) a format extension or (b) an HTTP Accept header. Available result formats depend on the type of SPARQL query. There are four main forms:
SELECT queries return tabular results, and the formats available reflect this:
| Format | Extensions | Accept Headers |
|---|---|---|
| XML | .xml |
application/xml, application/sparql-results+xml |
| JSON | .json |
application/json, application/sparql-results+json |
| Text | .txt, .text | text/plain |
| CSV | .csv | text/csv |
CONSTRUCT and DESCRIBE queries return graph data, so the results are available in the same formats as our resource APIs:
| Format | Extensions | Accept Headers |
|---|---|---|
| RDF/XML | .rdf | application/rdf+xml |
| N-triples | .nt, .txt, .text | application/n-triples, text/plain |
| Turtle | .ttl | text/turtle |
| JSON-LD | .json | application/ld+json, application/json |
ASK queries return a boolean result:
| Format | Extensions | Accept Headers |
|---|---|---|
| XML | .xml | application/xml, application/sparql-results+xml |
| JSON | .json | application/json, application/sparql-results+json |
| Text | .txt, .text | text/plain |
We accept page and per_page parameters for paginating the results of SELECT queries (we automatically modify your query to apply LIMIT and OFFSET clauses). For other query types (i.e. DESCRIBE, CONSTRUCT, ASK), pagination like this doesn’t make so much sense, so these parameters are ignored.
For requests made through the website (i.e. HTML format), the page size is defaulted to 20. For requests to our sparql endpoint for data formats (i.e. non-HTML), there will be no defaults for these parameters (i.e. results are unlimited. For performance reasons we generally advise LIMITing your query if possible).
You can parameterise your SPARQL by including %{tokens} in your queries, and providing values for the tokens in the request parameters.
Note that the following tokens are reserved and cannot be used as parameters for substitution:
controlleractionpageper_pageidcommitutf8queryOur servers are configured to allow access from all domains. This means that if you’re writing JavaScript to request data from our server in to a web page hosted on another domain, your browser should check this header and allow it.
If you need to support very old browsers, you can additionally pass a callback parameter and the results will be wrapped in that function. For example:
http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql.json?callback=myCallbackFunction&query=SELECT+%2A+WHERE+%7B%3Fs+%3Fp+%3Fo%7D+LIMIT+10This help topic on the jQuery website has more details.
Here’s a couple of examples running a query using the widely available cURL command line program.
Request the results as XML, using a POST:
curl -X POST -H "Accept: application/sparql-results+xml" -d "query=SELECT%20*%20WHERE%20%7B%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%7D%20LIMIT%2010" http://statistics.gov.scot/sparqlRequest the results as JSON, using a GET:
curl -X GET -H "Accept: application/sparql-results+json" http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql?query=SELECT%20*%20WHERE%20%7B%3Fs%20%3Fp%20%3Fo%7D%20LIMIT%2010This example HTML page uses jQuery to issue a POST to our SPARQL endpoint, requesting the results as JSON.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<script src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js'></script>
</head>
<body>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var query = 'SELECT * WHERE {?s ?p ?o} LIMIT 10';
var url = 'http://statistics.gov.scot/sparql.json';
$.ajax({
method: 'POST',
dataType: 'json',
url: url,
data: {query: query},
success: function(data) {
alert('success: ' + data.results.bindings.length + ' results');
console.log(data);
}
});
</script>
</body>
</html>