Editing Resource Description Framework (section)

{{short description|Formal language for describing data models}}
The '''Resource Description Framework''' ('''RDF''') is a method to describe and exchange [[Graph theory|graph]] data. It was originally designed as a data model for [[metadata]] by the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C). It provides a variety of syntax notations and formats, of which the most widely used is Turtle ([[Terse RDF Triple Language]]).

RDF is a [[directed graph]] composed of triple statements. An RDF graph statement is represented by: (1) a node for the subject, (2) an arc from subject to object, representing a predicate, and (3) a node for the object. Each of these parts can be identified by a [[Uniform Resource Identifier]] (URI). An object can also be a literal value. This simple, flexible data model has a lot of [[expressive power (computer science)|expressive power]] to represent complex situations, relationships, and other things of interest, while also being appropriately abstract.

RDF was adopted as a W3C recommendation in 1999. The RDF 1.0 specification was published in 2004, and the RDF 1.1 specification in 2014. [[SPARQL]] is a standard query language for RDF graphs. [[RDF Schema]] (RDFS), [[Web Ontology Language]] (OWL) and [[SHACL]] (Shapes Constraint Language) are ontology languages that are used to describe RDF data.