N-Triples

Usage

There is very little variation in how an RDF graph can be represented in N-Triples. This makes it a very convenient format to provide "model answers" for RDF test suites.

Implementations

As N-Triples is a subset of Turtle and Notation3, by definition all tools which support input in either of those formats will support N-Triples. In addition, some tools like Cwm have specific support for N-Triples.

File format

Each line of the file has either the form of a comment or of a statement: A statement consists of four parts, separated by whitespace:

• the subject,
• the predicate,
• the object,
• a full stop which means the termination of a statement

Subjects may take the form of a URI or a blank node; predicates must be a URI; objects may be a URI, blank node or a literal. URIs are delimited with less-than and greater-than signs used as angle brackets. Blank nodes are represented by an alphanumeric string, prefixed with an underscore and colon (_:). Literals are represented as printable ASCII strings (with backslash escapes), delimited with double-quote characters, and optionally suffixed with a language or datatype indicator. Language indicators are an at sign followed by an RFC 3066 language tag; datatype indicators are a double-caret followed by a URI. Comments consist of a line beginning with a hash sign.

Example

The N-Triples statements below are equivalent to this RDF/XML:

• RDF/XML

 <rdf:RDF xmlns="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
          xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
          xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" >
   <Document rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/">
     <dc:title xml:lang="en-US">N-Triples</dc:title>
     <maker>
       <Person rdf:nodeID="art">
         <name>Art Barstow</name>
       </Person>
     </maker>
     <maker>
       <Person rdf:nodeID="dave">
         <name>Dave Beckett</name>
       </Person>
     </maker>
   </Document>
 </rdf:RDF>

• N-Triples

 <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> ↵
    <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Document> .
 <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/> <http://purl.org/dc/terms/title> "N-Triples"@en-US .
 <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/maker> _:art .
 <http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/ntriples/> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/maker> _:dave .
 _:art <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person> .
 _:art <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name> "Art Barstow".
 _:dave <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person> .
 _:dave <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name> "Dave Beckett".

(The symbol ↵ is used to indicate a place where a line has been wrapped for legibility. N-Triples do not allow lines to be wrapped arbitrarily: the line endings indicate the end of a statement.)

N-Quads==

The related N-Quads superset extends N-Triples with an optional context value at the fourth position.

 <http://one.example/subject1> <http://one.example/predicate1> <http://one.example/object1> <http://example.org/graph3> . # comments here
 # or on a line by themselves
 _:subject1 <http://an.example/predicate1> "object1" <http://example.org/graph1> .
 _:subject2 <http://an.example/predicate2> "object2" <http://example.org/graph5> .

References

References

1. "RDF 1.1 N-Triples". www.w3.org.
2. "N-Triples". www.w3.org.
3. "RDF Test Cases - N-Triples". www.w3.org.
4. "XML and Semantic Web W3C Standards Timeline".
5. Jan Grant, Dave Beckett. (2004-02-10). "RDF Test Cases / N-Triples / Strings". W3C.
6. "RDF 1.1 N-Quads".
7. "RDF 1.1 N-Quads".
8. "Archived copy".