The Complexity of Evaluating Path Expressions in SPARQL
Summary: Formalizes W3C SPARQL1.1 property‑path semantics (limited negation, numerical occurrence sugar, nonstandard graph semantics) and frames decision/counting of path matches between nodes in edge‑labeled graphs. Shows W3C semantics makes existence and counting queries intractable for very small expression fragments (contrasting with a polytime alternative semantics), while membership for regular expressions with negation and numerical occurrence indicators is in P. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)
Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time
Authors
- 1. Katja Losemann
- 2. Wim Martens
Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 6 of 6 citing papers.
| Rank | Citing Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,040 | Querying Graph Databases | 2013 | PODS | 0.00014483577 |
| 4,276 | Query Planning for Evaluating SPARQL Property Paths | 2016 | SIGMOD | 6.2884651e-05 |
| 5,435 | A Trichotomy for Regular Simple Path Queries on Graphs | 2013 | PODS | 5.5074113e-05 |
| 6,846 | TriAL for RDF: Adapting Graph Query Languages for RDF Data | 2013 | PODS | 4.9042778e-05 |
| 10,573 | PlanRGCN: Predicting SPARQL Query Performance | 2025 | VLDB | 4.1905499e-05 |
| 11,836 | Designing a Query Language for RDF: Marrying Open and Closed Worlds | 2016 | PODS | 4.1905499e-05 |
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 8 of 8 cited papers.
Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.
| Rank | Cited Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 115 | A Query Language and Optimization Techniques for Unstructured Data | 1996 | SIGMOD | 0.00046301137 |
| 256 | GraphLog: a Visual Formalism for Real Life Recursion | 1990 | PODS | 0.00030241337 |
| 276 | Regular Path Queries with Constraints | 1997 | PODS | 0.00029365217 |
| 364 | A Graphical Query Language Supporting Recursion | 1987 | SIGMOD | 0.00025657601 |
| 808 | Query Containment for Conjunctive Queries With Regular Expressions | 1998 | PODS | 0.000164132 |
| 2,302 | Querying Semantic Web Data with SPARQL | 2011 | PODS | 9.0662698e-05 |
| 2,473 | Graph-Theoretic Methods In Database Theory | 1990 | PODS | 8.7048914e-05 |
| 3,231 | View-Based Query Processing for Regular Path Queries with Inverse | 2000 | PODS | 7.3333516e-05 |
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Semantically Similar Papers
| Overall Rank | Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,818 | Conjunctive Regular Path Queries with String Variables | 2020 | PODS | 4.911014e-05 |
| 4,201 | Static Analysis and Optimization of Semantic Web Queries | 2012 | PODS | 6.3588034e-05 |
| 9,738 | Expressive Languages for Querying the Semantic Web | 2014 | PODS | 4.2895392e-05 |
| 2,506 | Evaluating Queries with Generalized Path Expressions | 1996 | SIGMOD | 8.6273062e-05 |
| 5,435 | A Trichotomy for Regular Simple Path Queries on Graphs | 2013 | PODS | 5.5074113e-05 |
| 1,040 | Querying Graph Databases | 2013 | PODS | 0.00014483577 |
| 11,017 | Efficient Regular Simple Path Queries under Transitive Restricted Expressions | 2024 | VLDB | 4.1905499e-05 |
| 1,445 | Finding Regular Simple Paths in Graph Databases | 1989 | VLDB | 0.00011937596 |
| 4,276 | Query Planning for Evaluating SPARQL Property Paths | 2016 | SIGMOD | 6.2884651e-05 |
| 1,812 | Expressive Languages for Path Queries over Graph-Structured Data | 2010 | PODS | 0.00010458164 |