Wikidata:WikiProject Deprecate P642

The goal of this project is to prepare for deprecation, and eventual removal, of the property of (P642).

Currently, of (P642) is labeled as "being deprecated", meaning its use is still allowed, but discouraged. From a peak of over 11 million uses, the property now has around 700,000 uses (see status here). Our goal is to reduce that as much as possible in a systematic way, while ensuring that appropriate properties exist to replace all valid uses of of (P642). The latter is key to officially deprecating the property. Before removing the property, we want to get as close to zero uses as possible.

All identified use cases of of (P642) and their recommended handling are presented here.

The tasks of this WikiProject are:

1. Define and validate use cases

2. Migrate statements

3. Propose new properties as necessary

4. Implement constraints and autofixes to reduce re-population

5. Improve tools used by this project

These tasks can all proceed simultaneously.

Follow these steps in order:

1. Identify a statement for which 1) none of the already defined use cases is appropriate, or can reasonably be broadened to be appropriate, or 2) there is a more specific appropriate property than what the existing use cases recommend.

• You can find unidentified use cases by (for example) querying a class you're interested in, perusing what links to P642, or running one of the queries below.
• If you broaden an existing use case, please re-validate it as described below, and update any custom queries.

2. If no existing use case is appropriate, identify a property that would be an appropriate replacement for P642 in the statement, and make sure it will not produce a constraint violation. (Properties can be found with the Wikidata Property Explorer.) If you are not sure what property may be appropriate, or if no appropriate property exists, bring the use case to the Talk page.

3. For each element of the statement (main property, statement value, qualifier value), identify the broadest parent propert(y/ies) or class(es) for which your proposed approach is appropriate (which may be "any").

4. Validate your use case as described below. If the affected items or replacement property are in the scope of an existing WikiProject, consult that Project on your proposed handling. The use case can be added to the tables, with a link to any handling discussion in "Status".

5. Add your use case to the appropriate table on WikiProject Deprecate P642/Use cases.

• If the role of the items defining the use case differ from those specified in the table header, note this in the cell, e.g. "instance of [class]" or "exactly [class]"
• The word "often" means the use case is known to include false positives; its absence does not mean there are no false positives.
• Optional "status" could include notes such as: "scope TBD", "handling TBD", "custom SPARQL query needed", "handling discussion started/ongoing/concluded [here]", "property to be proposed", "property proposal [here]", "ready to migrate", or "cleared as of [date]".
• Example can be a link to an item, but should ideally be a link to a specific statement (preferably an already migrated one), displayed as the subject label, e.g. Carl Sagan. (Modify this query to find the statement node.)
• Linking to a query is not necessary, but can be helpful if the use case doesn't fit the pre-defined query templates.

Validating means querying a use case and ensuring there are few to no false positives (i.e., statements for which the proposed handling is not appropriate). The queries on WikiProject Deprecate P642/Migration process are a good starting point. If a use case returns a large number of false positives, consider these possibilities:

• One or more of the classes that define the use case may contain erroneous subclasses. Take a look at the returned statement values and qualifier values: if they seem like they don't belong, examine their parent class tree (TomT0m's classification script is made for this) and correct any erroneous links. Often, subclass of (P279) has been used when another property should have been instead.
• The use case may be overbroad. Try narrowing one or more classes in the definition to one or more of its subclasses, and see if this eliminates (or isolates) some of the false positives. Consider whether these false positives might comprise a separate use case. Adjust the use case(s) accordingly, and share your findings on the Talk page.

See Wikidata:WikiProject Deprecate P642/Migration process.

Please bring ideas for properties to the Talk page before submitting an official proposal, so we can anticipate and head off potential concerns that could swamp the proposal. Proposals generated during this effort are listed below.

The available constraint types do not allow us to selectively disallow the use of a qualifier based on value classes. Types of qualifiers we can implement include:

• "none-of" constraints on of (P642), for individual values that always fall under an identified use case.
• "required qualifier" constrains on other properties, when the property requires certain information and "of" has been used to include it.
• removing of (P642) from "allowed qualifier" constraints, when all use cases that might appear with that property (meaning almost all the use cases) have had replacements established.
• "conflicts-with" constraints on of (P642) (not recommended, as it affects statements outside the targeted use case)

Please include a constraint clarification (P6607) on any constraints you create.

Tasks in this area include:

• Translating instructions for project participants (this page, use cases, and migration process)
• Querying:

• Optimize the WDQS query templates (see Migration process) so they time out less often
• Create an interface to make modifying the query templates simpler
• Develop custom queries for use cases that do not fit the query templates

• Automated migration:

• Modify migration script to copy refs and other qualifiers to new main statements
• Develop a migration automation script for Unix-based OS's, or for any OS (current script is Windows-based)
• Convert existing script to use wikibase-cli "edit-entity" command to reduce number of edit batches
• Speed up the existing script

• Develop a script or gadget that makes it easy to migrate qualifiers to different properties from item pages
• Anything else that might help!

• Swpb
• Lectrician1
• BEANS X2
• Pallor
• Liuxinyu970226
• Samoasambia
• SM5POR

• items classified: class of items that this classification system classifies
• item(s) examined: item or class of items that is tested or examined
• declared by: party that made an official declaration

•  Doing… most populous settlement

•  Done object of occurrence & object class of occurrence
•  Done objects of occurrence have role
•  Done agent of action & agent class of action & agents of action have role
•  Done characteristic of

•  Not done action applies to (superseded by object of occurrence (P12912), object class of occurrence (P12913), and objects of occurrence have role (P12992))
•  Not done in service of

• Obtain statistics per property
• Obtain statistics per property type (if it times out, try again)
• Obtain statistics per property value data type
• Obtain statistics per property value data type for property items only
• Obtain statistics per item (timing out)
• Obtain statistics per property object (timing out)
• first 100,000 of (P642) uses grouped by qualifier value
• first 100,000 of (P642) uses grouped by statement value

These may require manual intervention.

• Use of the deprecated qualifier as a main value statement (obvious constraint violation)
• The deprecated qualifier appearing in value position (mostly in property constraint declarations)

Query	Quantity	Statement property	Statement value class	Qualifier value	Proposed handling	Example item
Query	164558	subject has role (P2868)	N/A	any	TBD	Theun de Vries (Q2143934)
Query	60792	position held (P39)	N/A	any	See table Main value is a subclass of job title, occupation, or position	Jaroslav Faltýnek (Q15124034)
Query	57854	number of matches played/races/starts (P1350) total goals in career (P6509) total shots in career (P6543) total points in career (P6544) total assists in career (P6545) penalty minutes in career (P6546) career plus-minus rating (P6547)	N/A	any	See #sports stats	Dani Pedrosa (Q313959)
Query	38241	winner (P1346)	N/A	any	See entries here	2019 Pulitzer Prize (Q63185624)
Query	10452	taxon range (P9714)	N/A	any	TBD	Oriental Turtle Dove (Q704987)
Query	8976	occupation (P106)	N/A	any	See table Main value is a subclass of job title, occupation, or position	Franz-Josef Sehr (Q22075663)
Query	5892	significant event (P793)	N/A	any	TBD	Kami Rita Sherpa (Q30688283)
Query	54587	any	any	creative work (Q17537576) (classes only)	TBD	Executive Order 13990 (Q105332577)
Query	19730	any	any	work of art (Q838948) (classes only)	TBD	Mattioli Productions Company (Q95593375)
Query	12036	any	any	film directed by this person (Q29017630) (classes only)	TBD	Wes Anderson (Q223687)

These are senses of "of" according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, ninth edition:

COD9	Sense	Examples
1	origin, cause, or ownership	paintings of Turner people of Rome died of malnutrition
2	the material or substance constituting or identifying a thing	a house of cards was built of bricks
3	belonging, connection, or possession	a thing of the past articles of clothing the head of the business the tip of the iceberg
4	identity or close relation	the city of Rome a pound of apples a fool of a man
5	removal, separation, or privation	north of the city got rid of them robbed us of £1,000
6	reference, direction, or respect	beware of the dog suspected of lying very good of you short of money the selling of goods
7	objective relation	love of music in search of peace
8	partition, classification, or inclusion	no more of that part of the story a friend of mine this sort of book some of us will stay
9	description, quality, or condition	the hour of prayer a person of tact a girl of ten on the point of leaving
10	N. Amer. time in relation to the following hour	a quarter of three

This table lists labels in some major languages for a number of properties either affected by or created as part of this deprecation effort. The idea is to get an overview of the translation process, as well as a comparison of the appropriateness of those translations (feedback from editors fluent in or at least familiar with these languages will be appreciated).

Proposed property	COD9	Description	Proposal status
action applies to	7	Use case identified below	Not done No consensus
quality or property of	9	Use cases identified below	Not yet proposed; more work needed
in service of	3	To be used with position held (P39) and similar to specify what country, organization, private corporation, business enterprise or other legal entity a natural person is appointed to represent or work on behalf of. This allows the main statement value to be a generic position such as president, ambassador, attorney general, board member, auditor, CEO and so on without the need for the identity of the served entity to be embedded in the role item (such as "Clark County Commissioner (Q105802373)"; there seem to be a lot of those).	Not done No consensus
assigned to	3	Sometimes combined with in service of to indicate the receiving country of a diplomatic mission, a conference to which a formal delegation is sent, a legislative committee or any other assignment outside the control of the sending entity.	Proposal to be written (for locations, use work location (P937))
with respect to	6	Use cases identified below	Not yet proposed; more work needed
applies in context	4	A limitation of applicability to a particular context such as a profession, a field of science, a culture, an organization, a programming language etc. For an example, see use case #o20. Some existing properties such as applies to part, aspect, or form (P518), applies to jurisdiction (P1001), valid in period (P1264), valid in place (P3005), applies to people (P6001) and applies to work (P10663) might be considered subproperties of applies in context that may be less than perfect matches in some cases.	Not yet proposed; more work needed
to benefit	7	product packaging process (Q117156507) has goal (P3712) "protection of product"	Not actual proposal; just an example case for comparison
describing	6	product packaging process (Q117156507) has goal (P3712) "advertising of product"	Not actual proposal; just an example case for comparison
target audience	6	product packaging process (Q117156507) has goal (P3712) "education of consumer"	Not actual proposal; just an example case for comparison

These are edits not themselves necessarily involving the of (P642) qualifier, but needed or at least helpful to support subsequent removal of of (P642) from other statements.

There may be Wikidata best practices recommending certain redundant claims; check out what applies to country (P17).

Certain items have multiple country (P17) claims, contradicting its documented purpose of describing the location. It may be desirable to either remove or ignore some of the redundant ones, before using the values of the remaining ones for other statements.

Case ID	Query	Quantity	Scope of use case	Proposed handling	Status	Example item
r1	Query	TBD	S: [s+] agent (Q24229398) P: country (P17)	discover redundant country (P17) claims to avoid changing later on		ambassador to France (Q19359050)

There have been lots of discussion about country (P17), requiring extra consideration be given to current best practice before depending on (and potentially replacing) some cases of country (P17) with assigned to work location (P937).

Case ID	Query	Quantity	Scope of use case	Proposed handling	Status	Example item
a1	Query	TBD	P: properties for this type (P1963) V: country (P17)	add properties for this type (P1963) assigned to work location (P937)	refinement required	class of ambassadors to a country (Q29918335)
a2	Query	259	S: [i/s*] class of ambassadors to a country (Q29918335) P: country (P17)	add assigned to work location (P937) V	pending new property	ambassador to France (Q19359050)

• Entities with the most of (P642) qualifiers: Query (takes 519 seconds to run un-cached)
• Classes who have the most number of instances with of (P642) qualifiers and example instances: Query

These tables have been replaced by those on WikiProject Deprecate P642/Use cases

Backstory:

• User:Lucas Werkmeister/P642 considered harmful (essay that precipitated efforts to deprecate P642)
• Wikidata:WikiProject_Data_Quality/Issues#Should_property_"of"_(P642)_be_deprecated?