tw_get_description: Get Wikidata description in given language

In tidywikidatar: Explore 'Wikidata' Through Tidy Data Frames

Get Wikidata description in given language

Description

Get Wikidata description in given language

Usage

tw_get_description(
  id,
  language = tidywikidatar::tw_get_language(),
  id_df = NULL,
  cache = NULL,
  overwrite_cache = FALSE,
  cache_connection = NULL,
  disconnect_db = TRUE,
  wait = 0
)

Arguments

id	A character vector of length 1, must start with Q, e.g. "Q254" for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
language	Defaults to language set with tw_set_language(); if not set, "en". Use "all_available" to keep all languages. For available language values, see the dedicated Wikimedia page.
id_df	Default to NULL. If given, it should be a dataframe typically generated with tw_get(), and is used instead of calling Wikidata or using SQLite cache. Ignored when id is of length more than one.
cache	Defaults to NULL. If given, it should be given either TRUE or FALSE. Typically set with tw_enable_cache() or tw_disable_cache().
overwrite_cache	Logical, defaults to FALSE. If TRUE, it overwrites the table in the local sqlite database. Useful if the original Wikidata object has been updated.
cache_connection	Defaults to NULL. If NULL, and caching is enabled, tidywikidatar will use a local sqlite database. A custom connection to other databases can be given (see vignette caching for details).
disconnect_db	Defaults to TRUE. If FALSE, leaves the connection to cache open.
wait	In seconds, defaults to 0. Time to wait between queries to Wikidata. If data are cached locally, wait time is not applied. If you are running many queries systematically you may want to add some waiting time between queries.

Value

A character vector of the same length as the vector of id given, with the Wikidata description in the requested language.

Examples

tw_get_description(
  id = c(
    "Q180099",
    "Q228822"
  ),
  language = "en"
)

tidywikidatar documentation built on Feb. 10, 2026, 1:07 a.m.