Wikidata:Tours/Special Values
Welcome to the Special Values Tour[edit]
Welcome back! In this tour, you’ll learn about advanced and special values for items.
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. Let's get started!
The value of values[edit]
In the Statements Tour you learned how statements are used in Wikidata to store and represent data about an item.
In theory, and as long as the appropriate property already exists in Wikidata, it is possible to record all and any data known about an item in a statement. This includes data that is contested and disputed as discussed in the References Tour, but it's also true even for data that is unconfirmed or unknown! This is all possible through advanced use of values.
Special values[edit]
Now let's take a closer look at an average statement, this time for the item for Mars.
Special values[edit]
You might have noticed another icon beside the value field while editing ranks. This feature is used for adding special values to a statement: either a no value or an unknown value for a given property.
Special values[edit]
No value is different than just not including any information at all! There are times when an item has either no value or an unknown value; depending on the property, this data still provides us with important information about an item and should thus still be recorded in Wikidata.
For example, we could say that Elizabeth I of England (Q7207), the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, had no value for the child (P40) property, which is quite different than not recording anything at all.
Now let's add our first special value now.
Adding a special value[edit]
First click on [add ] just as you would if adding any statement to an item.
Adding a special value[edit]
Next we'll add our property. Start typing "population" and select to add from the drop-down menu. Click the arrow to continue.
Adding a special value[edit]
Now click on the special values icon. Select "no value" because there isn't a human population for Mars ... yet.
Click save when done.
Congratulations[edit]
Congratulations! You've completed the Special Values Tour
Want to keep editing? If you're ready to leave the sandbox and edit on the real site, the links below will get you started:
- Edit a random item
Want to keep learning? Click here (add link) to go to the next or here to return to the tours portal.
Still have questions? Talk to someone over live chat on IRC #wikidataconnect or check out the following help pages: