Notation3

Notation3, or N3 as it is more commonly known, is a shorthand non-XML serialization of Resource Description Framework models, designed with human-readability in mind: N3 is much more compact and readable than XML RDF notation. The format is being developed by Tim Berners-Lee and others from the Semantic Web community. A formalization of the logic underlying N3 was published by Berners-Lee and others in 2008.

N3 has several features that go beyond a serialization for RDF models, such as support for RDF-based rules. Turtle is a simplified, RDF-only subset of N3.

Examples

The following is an RDF model in standard XML notation:

<rdf:RDF
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn">
    <dc:title>Tony Benn</dc:title>
    <dc:publisher>Wikipedia</dc:publisher>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

may be written in Notation3 like this:

@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn>
  dc:title "Tony Benn";
  dc:publisher "Wikipedia".

This N3 code above would also be in valid Turtle syntax.

Comparison of Notation3, Turtle, and N-Triples

Feature		Notation3	Turtle	N-Triples
colspan="2" Template:Rh2 | Character encoding	UTF-8		Template:Safe
scope="row" rowspan="5" Template:Rh2 | Directives	@base	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
@forAll	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
@forSome	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
@keywords	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
@prefix	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
scope="row" rowspan="3" Template:Rh2 | Lists
() (DAML lists)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
{ … } (statement lists)	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
scope="row" rowspan="4" Template:Rh2 | Literals	true / false (Boolean)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
xsd:decimal (decimal arbitrary length)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
xsd:double (decimal double)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
xsd:integer (decimal integer)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
scope="row" rowspan="9" Template:Rh2 | Syntactic sugar	RDF paths	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
QNames	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
a/@a (equiv. to rdf:type)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
[] (shorthand for blank node)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
=> (x implies y)	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
<= (y implies x)	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
= (x is equivalent to y)	Template:Ya	Template:Na	Template:Na
, (repeat object in list)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na
; (repeat subject/verb in list)	Template:Ya	Template:Ya	Template:Na

See also

• N-Triples
• Turtle (syntax)

External links

• Notation 3 W3C Submission
• Notation 3 Outline on W3C Design Issues by Tim Berners-Lee
• Notation 3 Primer: Getting into RDF & Semantic Web using N3
• A Rough Guide to Notation3
• RDF for "Little Languages"
• An editing mode of N3 for Emacs
• An editing mode of N3 for vim
• An editing mode of N3 for textmate
• An editing mode of N3 for gedit
• EulerGUI, an IDE centered on N3 editor with translation from RDF, with validation, prefix management, uploading of resources, graph view, table view, etc.