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{{Short description|Tool or service to match meanings across namespaces}}
{{Sources|date=May 2025}}
{{other uses|Semantic mapping (disambiguation){{!}}Semantic mapping}}
A '''semantic mapper''' is tool or service that aids in the transformation of [[data element]]s from one [[namespace]] into another namespace.  A semantic mapper is an essential component of a semantic broker and one tool that is enabled by the [[Semantic Web]] technologies.

Essentially the problems arising in '''semantic mapping''' are the same as in [[data mapping]] for [[data integration]] purposes, with the difference that here the semantic relationships are made explicit through the use of [[semantic net]]s or [[Ontology (information science)|ontologies]] which play the role of [[data dictionary|data dictionaries]] in data mapping.

==Structure==
A semantic mapper must have access to three data sets:

# List of data elements in source [[namespace]]
# List of data elements in destination namespace
# List of semantic equivalent statements between source and destination (e.g. [http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-20040210/#equivalentClass-def owl:equivalentClass],  [http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-20040210/#equivalentProperty-def owl:equivalentProperty] or [http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-20040210/#sameAs-def owl:sameAs] in [[Web Ontology Language|OWL]]).

A semantic mapper processes on a list of data elements in the source namespace.  The semantic mapper will successively translate the data elements from the source namespace to the destination namespace.  The mapping does not necessarily need to be a [[bijection|one-to-one]] mapping.  Some data elements may map to several data elements in the destination.

Some semantic mappers are static in that they will do a one-time data transforms.  Others will generate an executable program to repeatedly perform this transform.  The output of this program may be any transformation system such as [[XSLT]], a [[Java (programming language)|Java]] program or a program in some other [[procedural language]].

==See also==
* {{anl|Colexification}}
* {{anl|Data model}}
* {{anl|Data wrangling}}
* {{anl|Enterprise application integration}}
* {{anl|Mediation}}
* {{anl|Ontology matching}}
* {{anl|Semantic field}}
* {{anl|Semantic heterogeneity}}
* {{anl|Semantic integration}}
* {{anl|Semantic translation}}
* {{anl|Semantic unification}}

==General references==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060110053651/http://web-services.gov/OntologiesSemanticWebSemInteropSICOP909-Obrst.ppt Ontologies & the Semantic Web for Semantic Interoperability Leo Obrst]
{{Semantic Web}}
[[Category:Semantic Web]]
[[Category:Data mapping]]