Property paths in Sparql - sparql

Question

I am posing a Sparql query to Dbpedia endpoint with property paths:
select (COUNT(distinct ?s2) AS ?count) WHERE{
?s2 skos:broader{0,2} dbc:Countries_in_Europe
}
I want to pose the same query without property paths:
select (COUNT(distinct ?s2) AS ?count) (COUNT(distinct ?s1) AS ?count1) WHERE{
?s2 skos:broader dbc:Countries_in_Europe.
?s1 skos:broader ?s2.
}
I have two questions:
Is it possible to get ?s1+?s2 for the second query?
For the second query, I expect the sum of the count numbers +1 (dbc:Countries_in_Europe) should be the same with the first query. But they are not. What is wrong?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You're using non-standard SPARQL, i.e. restricting the depth did not make it to the final version, see the W3C specs
I guess the first query is supposed to returns sub-categories of the given one up to a depth 2, right? Your second query doesn't do the same. You have to use a UNION of each distance, i.e. one for the direct sub-categories, and one for the other levels.
SELECT (COUNT(distinct ?s) AS ?count) WHERE {
{
?s skos:broader dbc:Countries_in_Europe
} UNION {
?s1 skos:broader dbc:Countries_in_Europe.
?s skos:broader ?s1
}
}
Note, in your first query you used {0,2} which means due to 0 distance the category dbc:Countries_in_Europe itself is also part of the result. If you need it, you should add +1 to the result of the second query.
Update
As per #JohuaTaylor's comment below, a more compact syntax would be
SELECT (COUNT(distinct ?s) AS ?count) WHERE {
?s skos:broader/skos:broader? dbc:Countries_in_Europe
}