{"id":841,"date":"2026-06-05T12:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magnusmanske.de\/wordpress\/?p=841"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:43:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T10:43:49","slug":"freeform-statements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/magnusmanske.de\/wordpress\/archives\/841","title":{"rendered":"Freeform statements"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Mix’n’match<\/a> tool has a little-known feature that I think deserves a little attention.<\/p>\n

A catalog in Mix’n’match is a list of entries in other datasets that should be matched to Wikidata. Besides some required core data for each entry, the user importing the catalog can add key-value-pairs for Wikidata statements that can help to match the entry (e.g. VIAF ID), or can be nice-to-have for item creation (e.g. occupation).<\/p>\n

Now, many datasets contain such additional information, but often in free-form text. That person here was born in Berlin – but is it the Berlin in Germany, or the one in New Hampshire<\/a>? This often depends on the context of the dataset. This makes conversion from free-form text to proper Wikidata IDs difficult and time-consuming, and a hurdle before import into Mix’n’match. So often such data gets thrown away.<\/p>\n

But there is another way: If you know the Wikidata property for a “factoid” in your dataset (e.g. “place of birth”), you can import it as a “statement text”. It is still a key-value-pair, but while the key is a Wikidata property ID, the value can be anything you like.<\/p>\n