Wikidata:Property proposal/The World Factbook country ID

The World Factbook country ID

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Place

Done: The World Factbook country ID (P9948) (Talk and documentation)

Description	identifier for a country or territory in The World Factbook (Online)
Represents	The World Factbook (Q97142711)
Data type	External identifier
Domain	item; country (Q6256); administrative territorial entity (Q56061)
Allowed values	[a-z\-]+
Example 1	Afghanistan (Q889) → afghanistan
Example 2	East Timor (Q574) → timor-leste
Example 3	American Samoa (Q16641) → american-samoa
Example 4	Antigua and Barbuda (Q781) → antigua-and-barbuda
Example 5	Clipperton Island (Q161258) → clipperton-island
Example 6	Saint Pierre and Miquelon (Q34617) → saint-pierre-and-miquelon
Example 7	United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges (Q107357273) → united-states-pacific-island-wildlife-refuges
Example 8	Holy See (Q159583) → holy-see-vatican-city
Example 9	European Union (Q458) → european-union
Example 10	world (Q16502) → world
Source	https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/
Planned use	will add to country items
Number of IDs in source	255
Expected completeness	eventually complete (Q21873974)
Formatter URL	https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/$1/
Applicable "stated in"-value	The World Factbook (Q97142711)
Distinct-values constraint	yes

Motivation

The World Factbook online contains authoritative information about the countries and territories of the world. The website was recently changed and has a new URL, which is no longer based on the country FIPS code. This is an important reference source that should have its own Wikidata property. UWashPrincipalCataloger (talk) 00:08, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Support. I guess it's OK. Thierry Caro (talk) 16:53, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose doesn't seem to be an "identifier" as distinct value constraint would fail. We don't really need another list of country names. --- Jura 17:31, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
My justification for this is that this source provides very authoritative information about the countries of the world. This is a standard reference source and should be in Wikidata. I don't see the distinct value constraint as problematic. It would apply to only a few countries in the list, which are mostly territorial entities having multiple components. UWashPrincipalCataloger (talk) 17:54, 30 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Crystal Clements, University of Washington Libraries (talk) 00:41, 1 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Emwille (talk) 13:37, 1 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Pteropotamus (talk) 13:59, 1 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Jala360 13:02, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Support, sounds like it's worth having. It's not really another list of countries, and the links are useful. Ari T. Benchaim ^(talk) 01:37, 19 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose for now. Comment I would support this if the planned usage was modified to actually be an identifier. As Jura points out above, the examples clearly show this is not an "identifier" as it uses the same ID for multiple Wikidata items. If we don't have an item that corresponds exactly to "United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges" then we should create such an item (United States Minor Outlying Islands (Q16645) seems close but not exact), use the proposed identifier there and not on the individual components like Baker Island (Q46879), and then link that the components to the new item with appropriate statements. Adding inexact identifiers like this (particularly with such a small number of items - i.e. a high percentage of constraint failures) leads to inference failures when people assume they are exact. Please try to be more careful with external id's! ArthurPSmith (talk) 14:48, 21 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
- I have created an item for United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges (Q107357273) so that the identifier could point to it. Hopefully that will resolve the objections. UWashPrincipalCataloger (talk) 18:49, 27 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  - OK, that looks better. I marked this as ready now then, thanks. ArthurPSmith (talk) 16:59, 28 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  - It still has "Distinct-values constraint: yes, but with a few exceptions". --- Jura 14:08, 29 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    - @Jura1: I revised the distinct values constraint. I think it should be ready for creation now. UWashPrincipalCataloger (talk) 06:56, 29 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    - Thanks. The other initial problem remains: it's mainly a list of countries (or country names) and not a generally used identifier. --- Jura 05:40, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that's a problem. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of properties in Wikidata where the identifier is an alphabetical string. For example, see examples in SkiMo Stats ID (P8146), Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia ID (P9281), BBC Food ID (P9925), Biblio.com ID (P9418), Songlexikon ID (P9089), etc. The reference source here is extremely valuable and should be in country items. UWashPrincipalCataloger (talk) 16:20, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@UWashPrincipalCataloger, Thierry Caro, Jura1, Clements.UWLib, Emwille, Pteropotamus: @Jala360, Ari T. Benchaim, ArthurPSmith:

Done The World Factbook country ID (P9948) Pamputt (talk) 06:07, 7 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]