English

Shape Expressions with Inheritance

Databases 2025-04-01 v1 Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

We formally introduce an inheritance mechanism for the Shape Expressions language (ShEx). It is inspired by inheritance in object-oriented programming languages, and provides similar advantages such as reuse, modularity, and more flexible data modelling. Using an example, we explain the main features of the inheritance mechanism. We present its syntax and formal semantics. The semantics is an extension of the semantics of ShEx 2.1. It also directly yields a validation algorithm as an extension of the previous ShEx validation algorithms, while maintaining the same algorithmic complexity.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.24299,
  title  = {Shape Expressions with Inheritance},
  author = {Iovka Boneva and Jose Emilio Labra Gayo and Eric Prud'hommeaux and Katherine Thornton and Andra Waagmeester},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.24299},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Accepted in Extended Semantic Web Conference, ESWC, 2025

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:40:54.430Z