rdf:Alt

Definition

An Alternative or Alt (a resource having type rdf:Alt) represents a group of resources or literals that are alternatives (typically for a single value of a property).

EXAMPLE: An Alt might be used to describe alternative language translations for the title of a book, or to describe a list of alternative Internet sites at which a resource might be found. An application using a property whose value is an Alt container should be aware that it can choose any one of the members of the group as appropriate.

Schema

<rdfs:Class rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Alt">

<rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"/>

<rdfs:label>Alt</rdfs:label>

<rdfs:comment>The class of containers of alternatives.</rdfs:comment>

<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Container"/>

</rdfs:Class>

Example listing

Triple

RDF/XML

<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://example.org/packages/X11">

<s:DistributionSite>

<rdf:Alt>

<rdf:li rdf:resource="ftp://ftp.example.org"/>

<rdf:li rdf:resource="ftp://ftp1.example.org"/>

<rdf:li rdf:resource="ftp://ftp2.example.org"/>

</rdf:Alt>

</s:DistributionSite>

</rdf:Description>

Other information

To describe a resource as being an Alternative, the resource is given an rdf:type property whose value is rdf:Alt.

The rdf:Alt class is the class of RDF 'Alternative' containers. It is a subclass of rdfs:Container. Whilst formally it is no different from an rdf:Seq or an rdf:Bag, the rdf:Alt class is used conventionally to indicate to a human reader that typical processing will be to select one of the members of the container. The first member of the container, i.e. the value of the rdf:_1 property, is the default choice.