N-Triples

N-Triples was introduced as part of the W3C RDF Working Group’s efforts to create a simpler, more machine-friendly format for RDF data. It was developed alongside Turtle and became a W3C standard in 2014.

NTriples is a line-based, plain text serialization format for RDF graphs. It was designed to be easier for software to parse and generate, but less readable for humans due to its minimal syntax. It lacks some of the shortcuts that are present in other RDF serializations such as Turtle (e.g., prefixes).  

Being line-based means that each RDF triple – a subject, predicate and object – is written on a separate line, with no additional structure or nesting. This design allows machines to parse the data efficiently, making the format ideal for large-scale data processing and data dumps where efficiency matters more than human readability.

NTriples is a preferred serialization for RDF data.

© DANS. R.5.5.T.17.P.4 Version 1.0, December 13, 2024