Listing: Syntax highlighting for SPARQL query?

Question

I use the following listing to show a SPARQL query:

\begin{lstlisting}[captionpos=b, caption=SPARQL query, label=lst:sparql]
PREFIX java: <http://evolizer.org/ontologies/seon/2009/06/java.owl#>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
SELECT ?url ?name
WHERE {
   ?url rdf:type java:Package .
   ?url rdfs:label ?name
}

But now I don't know which language tag I should set, since SPARQL is not built-in. I also tried to define my own highlighting, but I couldn't achieve a good result. Is there any macro available for highlighting SPARQL queries?

Answer 1

Load the defined language SQL and define more keywords, if needed. Alternetivily write a package SPARQL.sty with a a complete language definition. Choose the one from SQL as template which is in the file lstlang1.sty

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[scaled=0.85]{beramono}
\usepackage{listings}
\lstset{language=SQL,morekeywords={PREFIX,java,rdf,rdfs,url}}

\begin{document}

\begin{lstlisting}[captionpos=b, caption=SPARQL query, label=lst:sparql,
   basicstyle=\ttfamily,frame=single]
PREFIX java: <http://evolizer.org/ontologies/seon/2009/06/java.owl#>
PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
SELECT ?url ?name
WHERE {
   ?url rdf:type java:Package .
   ?url rdfs:label ?name
}
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}

Answer 2

If you use the minted package, you can write your own lexer quite easily by writing a python module for Pygments. I wrote a little example on my blog.

Edit: There's actually a SPARQL lexer for Pygments in this repository, so you can

• Download the sw.py file

  $ mkdir -p swlexers/swlexers
  $ cd swlexers
  $ wget http://www.openvest.com/trac/browser/tools/trunk/pygments/lexers/sw.py?format=txt -O swlexers/__init__.py
  

• Write a setup.py file for it

  $ cat setup.py
  """
  Sparql syntax highlightin for Pygments.
  """
  from setuptools import setup
  entry_points = """
  [pygments.lexers]
  sparql = swlexers:SparqlLexer
  """
  setup(
      name         = 'swlexers',
      version      = '0.1',
      description  = __doc__,
      packages     = ['swlexers'],
      entry_points = entry_points
  )
  

• Install the module:

  $ sudo python setup.py install
  

• Check that the module was installed:

  $ pygmentize -L | grep -i sparql
  

• Use it in your code with minted:

  \documentclass{article}
  \usepackage{minted}
  \begin{document}
  \begin{minted}{sparql}
  PREFIX java: <http://evolizer.org/ontologies/seon/2009/06/java.owl#>
  PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
  PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
  SELECT ?url ?name
  WHERE {
     ?url rdf:type java:Package .
     ?url rdfs:label ?name
  }
  \end{minted}
  \end{document}
  

Answer 3

The other answers provide much fully features ways to achieve this. For completeness sake I would note that you can also just use the \lstdefinelanguage command from the listings package to define a completely new language.

The following is the crude definition of SPARQL I've used in the past.

% Language Definitions for SPARQL
\lstdefinelanguage{sparql}{
morecomment=[l][\color{olivegreen}]{\#},
morestring=[b][\color{blue}]\",
morekeywords={SELECT,CONSTRUCT,DESCRIBE,ASK,WHERE,FROM,NAMED,PREFIX,BASE,OPTIONAL,FILTER,GRAPH,LIMIT,OFFSET,SERVICE,UNION,EXISTS,NOT,BINDINGS,MINUS,a},
sensitive=true
}

You'll notice I didn't bother to fill out all the keywords for the built in functions

Answer 4

I'm new to StackExchange, and don't know well the forum ; but I think this page should be updated.

I first followed the SQL solution, then the \lstdefinelanguage : both of these solutions fail with comments.

However, I found that there is a SPARQL definition in /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/listings/lstlang3.sty (install on Ubuntu 18.04) :

.../usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/listings$ grep -i sparql *
lstlang3.sty:%% SPARQL definition (c) 2006 Christoph Kiefer
lstlang3.sty:\lst@definelanguage{SPARQL}%

As you can see, it was written in 2006 (but maybe not in listings package in 2011 or 2013, when the answers on this page were posted?).

Here's a sample code to compare the solutions :

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{color}

\lstset{
    morecomment=[l]{\#},
    frame = single,
    basicstyle = \ttfamily\footnotesize,
    commentstyle=\color{blue},
}

\lstdefinelanguage{sparqlB}{
    morecomment=[l]{\#},
    language=SQL,
    morekeywords={SELECT},      
    commentstyle=\itshape\color{blue},
    sensitive=true,
}

\begin{document}

    -- SPARQL in lstlang3.sty : 
    \begin{lstlisting}[language=sparql]
        # comment with 'single quotes' = OK
        SELECT * WHERE { ?s ?p ?o }
    \end{lstlisting}

    -- SQL solution :       
    \begin{lstlisting}[language=SQL]
        # comment with 'single quotes' = NOT RECOGNIZED
        SELECT * WHERE { ?s ?p ?o }
    \end{lstlisting}    

    -- \\lstdefinelanguage solution
    \begin{lstlisting}[language=sparqlB]
    # comment with 'single quotes' = NOT RECOGNIZED
    SELECT * WHERE { ?s ?p ?o }
    \end{lstlisting}    


\end{document}

---

EDIT : Actually the \lstdefinelanguage works for comments if I change the order of options

\lstdefinelanguage{
language=SQL,  % <-- has to be before morecomment
morecomment=[l]{\#},
[...]

or remove language=SQL

But the definition in .sty file is more complete, of course.