SPARQL is the RDF query language used to access DBpedia data extracted from Wikipedia. DBpedia represents extracted facts as Resource Description Framework triples, and SPARQL lets users search those structured relationships rather than browse individual encyclopedia pages.
A SPARQL query commonly matches patterns such as a subject, predicate and object. For example, a user can ask DBpedia for entities that have a particular type, birthplace or relationship, then receive results in formats suitable for applications and analysis. This makes DBpedia useful as linked open data rather than merely as a collection of copied text.
SPARQL is often compared with SQL because both retrieve structured data, but they target different models: SQL generally queries tables, while SPARQL queries RDF graphs. It is also distinct from XPath, which navigates XML, and GraphQL, which is an API query language. The W3C made SPARQL 1.0 a Recommendation in 2008 and SPARQL 1.1 a Recommendation in 2013.