Wikidata:Tours/Qualifiers
Welcome to the Qualifiers Tour[edit]
Welcome to Wikidata! In this tour you’ll learn how to do even more with statements to ensure high quality data is added to Wikidata. We'll get to work using and adding qualifiers to statements and references.
Please take the Statements Tour before taking this tour.
If there are any terms in this tour you would like a definition for please see the Wikidata:Glossary
Please note that the page in the background is only a replica of a real page — you can think of it as a sandbox for you to play in and try new things. Your changes won't appear on Wikidata so there's no need to worry while making edits in this space.
?Qualifiers[edit]
Recall in the References Tour that you created a statement about Earth's population, with a reference pointing to a report by the United Nations Population Fund.
Adding references to statements is important and helps contribute to a Wikidata that is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.
?Qualifiers[edit]
But wait a moment—the global population is always changing, and fast!
In fact, it will have already changed since you began reading this sentence. At that speed, it would be silly to try and update Wikidata every time a new person was born into the world.
Luckily there's no need to do so. This is because there are ways in Wikidata to include specific information about statements that further describes, refines, or contextualizes their values, for example a precise moment of time that a value is considered true. These are known as qualifiers.
?More on qualifiers[edit]
Qualifiers can say a lot!
For example, you can use character role (P453) as a qualifier to say that not only was Arnold Schwarzenegger a cast member of the movie Terminator, but he played the Terminator!
You can also use qualifiers to provide information about how a value was discovered or determined. For example, using determination method (P459), it's possible to indicate if a population value of a city is an estimation or if it is based on a census.
?More on qualifiers[edit]
Got it? Great!
Let's now add a qualifier, point in time (P585), to our original population value so that others on Wikidata will know not just where but also when our information is from.
?Adding a qualifier[edit]
First click on [edit] for our statement about population.
?Adding a qualifier[edit]
Next click on the [add qualifier] button that appeared.
?Adding a qualifier[edit]
In the new property field, start typing in "point in time" and select it from the drop-down to add.
?Adding a qualifier[edit]
In the next field, type in the date from the report: October 31 2011. Click save when done.
Congratulations![edit]
Congratulations! You've completed the References Tour.
You can now add references to Wikidata items to make them more useful for everyone.
Want to keep learning? Click here to return to the tours portal.
Still have questions? Talk to someone over live chat on IRC #wikidataconnect or check out the following pages for help: