Section: New Results

SPARQL Query Containment with ShEx Constraints

Data structured in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) are increasingly available in large volumes. This leads to a major need and research interest in novel methods for query analysis and compilation for making the most of RDF data extraction. SPARQL is the widely used and well supported standard query language for RDF data. In parallel to query language evolutions, schema languages for expressing constraints on RDF datasets also evolve. Shape Expressions (ShEx) are increasingly used to validate RDF data, and to communicate expected graph patterns. Schemas in general are important for static analysis tasks such as query optimisation and containment.

In this work [10], [8], we investigate the means and methodologies for SPARQL query static analysis in the presence of ShEx schema constraints. Our contribution consists in considering the problem of SPARQL query containment in the presence of ShEx constraints. We propose a sound and complete procedure for the problem of containment with ShEx, considering several SPARQL fragments. Particularly our procedure considers OPTIONAL query patterns, that turns out to be an important feature to be studied with schemas. We provide complexity bounds for the containment problem with respect to the language fragments considered. We also propose alternative method for SPARQL query containment with ShEx by reduction into First Order Logic satisfiability, which allows for considering SPARQL fragment extension in comparison to the first method. This is the first work addressing SPARQL query containment in the presence of ShEx constraints.