Modelling OWL datatype property restrictions with a list of values

Question

I have class called ResponseInformation that a has a datatype property called hasResponseType, which must have only the following string values: \"Accept\", \"Decl

Answer 1

I think that Antoine Zimmermann's answer covers how you can do this fairly well. I do agree that effort required to implement the two approaches is similar. I expect, though I haven't tested this, that some types of reasoning will be more efficient on the datatype option, since I expect that typed literals can be compared for equality and inequality much faster than individuals can be.

However, I think that I'd still suggest taking the enumerated individuals (so that hasResponseType is an object property) approach for at least two reasons:

1. As Atoine's answer points out, it is somewhat dubious that the response type is actually a character string. Instead, it seems like the response type would have a label (or multiple labels, e.g., in different languages) that's a character string.

2. (This is my primary point.) If you want to say anything about response types, they need to be individuals. For instance, when response types are individuals, you can give them additional types, e.g.,

   Accept a GuaranteedResponse
   Decline a not GuaranteedResponse
   Provisional a not GuaranteedResponse
   

   and then you could ask, for instance, how many not GuaranteedRepsonses a given poller collected. You could also associate a code with each response type, e.g.,

   Accept hasCode "x789"
   Decline hasCode "x234"
   Provisional hasCode "x900"
   

   and then pass this on to the responses:

   hasResponseCode subPropertyOf hasResponseType o hasCode
   

   You won't be able to do this if your ResponseTypes are literals, because literals can't be the subject of statements.