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RDF/XML Format

Description​

RDF/XML is an XML-based serialization format for RDF (Resource Description Framework) data. It represents RDF triples (subject-predicate-object) in XML format. RDF/XML is one of the standard RDF serialization formats.

File Extensions​

  • .rdf - RDF/XML files
  • .rdf.xml - RDF/XML files (alias)

Implementation Details​

Reading​

The RDF/XML implementation:

  • Uses lxml library for XML parsing
  • Parses RDF Description elements
  • Extracts RDF triples (subject-predicate-object)
  • Groups triples by subject
  • Converts RDF data to dictionaries

Writing​

Writing is not currently supported for RDF/XML format.

Key Features​

  • RDF format: Represents RDF data in XML
  • Triple extraction: Extracts RDF triples
  • Subject grouping: Groups triples by subject
  • Nested data: Supports complex RDF structures
  • XML parsing: Uses XML parsing for RDF data

Usage​

from iterable import open_iterable

# Basic reading
source = open_iterable('data.rdf')
for row in source:
    print(row)  # Contains RDF triples grouped by subject
source.close()

Parameters​

  • encoding (str): File encoding (default: utf8)

Limitations​

  1. Read-only: RDF/XML format does not support writing
  2. lxml dependency: Requires lxml package
  3. Memory usage: Entire RDF graph may be loaded into memory
  4. RDF complexity: Complex RDF structures may be difficult to work with
  5. XML complexity: Complex XML namespaces may require manual handling

Compression Support​

RDF/XML files can be compressed with all supported codecs:

  • GZip (.rdf.gz)
  • BZip2 (.rdf.bz2)
  • LZMA (.rdf.xz)
  • LZ4 (.rdf.lz4)
  • ZIP (.rdf.zip)
  • Brotli (.rdf.br)
  • ZStandard (.rdf.zst)

Use Cases​

  • Semantic web: Working with semantic web data
  • Linked data: Processing linked data
  • Knowledge graphs: Building and querying knowledge graphs
  • Metadata: Working with RDF metadata
  • Turtle - More readable RDF format
  • N-Triples - Simpler RDF format
  • N-Quads - N-Triples with graph context
  • XML - Base XML format