Wikipedia:Database queries

Overview

Much of the data that makes up the Wikipedia encyclopedia is stored in a SQL database. It can sometimes be useful to run queries against this database to extract information that is otherwise hard to find. For example:

• Articles with H.M.S. in their title that have not been edited for 12 months.
• Redirects with fewer than 20 incoming links that redirect to categories
• All red links on pages within the scope of a particular WikiProject

Many simple queries can be run directly using the tools built into the MediaWiki package used by Wikipedia. Some of the most popular and useful queries are run regularly and can be found at Wikipedia:Database reports. If neither of these suits your query, you can request that someone run a query for you, or download your own copy of the database to work on.

Using the MediaWiki tools

Some queries can be satisfied through the MediaWiki interface:

• Search in advanced mode
• All pages with prefix
• Category tree
• MediaWiki API (see Special:ApiSandbox)

Queries that are already run regularly

Useful queries that are regularly run can be found at:

• Special:SpecialPages
• Wikipedia:Database reports
• Wikipedia:Statistics

And many other places.

Run a query

All Wikipedians have the ability to run queries on a copy of the live database on the Wikimedia Cloud VPS called Quarry.

Request a query

• Wikipedia:Request a query

See also

• wikitech:Nova Resource:Tools/Tools/Query service