Tarql

What it is

Tarql is a Java command-line tool, based on Apache ARQ, that converts CSV files to RDF using SPARQL 1.1 syntax. It treats CSV contents as a table of variable bindings and commonly generates RDF with CONSTRUCT queries.

Key concepts

Header names become SPARQL variables by default, while headerless input uses ?a, ?b, and so on; ?ROWNUM exposes the non-empty input-row number. Mappings may be SELECT, ASK, or one or more consecutive CONSTRUCT queries, and the CLI supports CSV/TSV parsing controls, Turtle or N-Triples output, testing, and duplicate removal.

How you’d use it

Write a SPARQL mapping that binds tabular columns, computes IRIs or tagged literals with SPARQL expressions, and constructs the desired RDF, then run tarql mapping.sparql input.csv. Use --test to inspect the template, variables, and a few rows while developing the mapping.

LLM angle

none stated

Pitfalls & lessons

CSV and TSV inputs vary in headers, delimiters, quote/escape characters, and encodings, so configure parsing explicitly when defaults do not fit. In multi-CONSTRUCT mappings, generated triples can feed later queries, and the source warns that OPTIONAL/BIND order is significant.

Verdict

A focused bridge from tables to RDF that lets existing SPARQL skills define both transformation logic and output structure.

Sources consulted

• https://tarql.github.io/