wikidata

Wikidata — the open knowledge graph

Query Wikidata, the free structured database behind Wikipedia: resolve a name to an entity, read an entity's facts, or run a raw SPARQL query over the graph. Use it for broad entity research — people, organizations, places, works, and their typed relationships — complementing the power-network focus of std::data/people/littlesis.

Recipe: wikidataSearch a name to get a QID, then wikidataEntity(qid) for its facts, or wikidataQuery for graph traversal. Entity claims and SPARQL results reference other entities by QID (e.g. "Q5"); resolve those with another search/entity call, or ask SPARQL for labels with SERVICE wikibase:label. No API key required (WDQS is rate-limited and wants a descriptive User-Agent — set WIKIDATA_USER_AGENT to override the default).

Usage

import { wikidataSearch, wikidataEntity } from "std::data/wikidata"

node main() {
  const hits = wikidataSearch("Ada Lovelace") catch []
  if (hits.length > 0) {
    const e = wikidataEntity(hits[0].id) catch { id: "", label: "", description: "", aliases: [], claims: {} }
    print("${e.label}: ${e.description}")
  }
}

Types

Entity

A Wikidata entity from a name search. id is the QID (e.g. "Q42").

/** A Wikidata entity from a name search. `id` is the QID (e.g. "Q42"). */
export type Entity = {
  id: string;
  label: string;
  description: string;
  url: string
}

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EntityDetail

One entity's facts. claims maps a property id (e.g. "P31") to its values; a value is a QID for entity-valued claims, or the literal's string form otherwise. Resolve QIDs with another search/entity call.

/** One entity's facts. `claims` maps a property id (e.g. "P31") to its values; a value is a QID for
    entity-valued claims, or the literal's string form otherwise. Resolve QIDs with another
    search/entity call. */
export type EntityDetail = {
  id: string;
  label: string;
  description: string;
  aliases: string[];
  claims: Record<string, string[]>
}

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Effects

std::wikidata

effect std::wikidata {
  op: string;
  query: string
}

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Functions

wikidataSearch

wikidataSearch(name: string, limit: number): Result<Entity[]>

Search Wikidata for entities by name. Returns matches with QID, label, description, and URL. The QID identifies the entity for a follow-up entity fetch or SPARQL query. Empty result set returns an empty list.

@param name - The person, organization, place, or thing to search for @param limit - Maximum number of matches to return (default 5)

Parameters:

Name	Type	Default
name	string
limit	number	5

Returns: Result<Entity[]>

Throws: std::wikidata

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wikidataEntity

wikidataEntity(qid: string): Result<EntityDetail>

Fetch one Wikidata entity by its QID. Returns the English label, description, aliases, and claims (property id to values; entity-valued claims are QIDs to resolve separately). Unknown QID returns a failure.

@param qid - The Wikidata entity id, e.g. "Q42"

Parameters:

Name	Type	Default
qid	string

Returns: Result<EntityDetail>

Throws: std::wikidata

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wikidataQuery

wikidataQuery(sparql: string): Result<Record<string, string>[]>

Run a SPARQL query against the Wikidata Query Service and return rows (each a map of the SELECTed variable names to string values). Prefixes wd:/wdt:/rdfs: and SERVICE wikibase:label are available. Example: SELECT ?item ?itemLabel WHERE { ?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5 . SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "en" } } LIMIT 10

@param sparql - The SPARQL query text

Parameters:

Name	Type	Default
sparql	string

Returns: Result<Record<string, string>[]>

Throws: std::wikidata

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