time interval A temporal entity with an extent or duration. time interval A region in a dimensional space that aims at representing time. Time-indexed Value in Context pattern David Shotton (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5506-523X) Fabio Vitali (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7562-5203) Sebastian Barzaghi (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0799-1527) Silvio Peroni (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0530-4305) 2026-09-18 The **_Time-indexed Value in Context pattern (TVC)_** is an Ontology Design Pattern for the description of scenarios that involve entities having some value during a particular time and within a particular context.  Sometimes, we need to describe scenarios in which someone (e.g., a person) has a value (e.g., a particular role) during a particular time and for a particular context. Four different things are involved in these kinds of scenarios: 1. the _entity_ having some value, e.g. a person or a document possessing a role or a status; 2. the _value_ had by someone, e.g. a role or a status; 3. the _time period_ during which the entity has that value, e.g. from April 2008 to September 2008; 4. the particular _context_ that characterises the act of having that value, e.g. being a member of an institution or an editor of a particular journal. Thought as a natural extension of the [_Time-indexed Situation pattern_](http://ontologydesignpatterns.org/wiki/Submissions:TimeIndexedSituation), TVC is able to describe these kinds of scenarios. ## Examples of use In the following subsections, we introduce some examples to showcase how to use TVC. The prefixes that are used in all the examples provided below are defined as follows: @prefix : <http://www.sparontologies.net/example/> . @prefix tvc: <http://www.essepuntato.it/2012/04/tvc/> . @prefix ti: <http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/cp/owl/timeinterval.owl#> . @prefix time: <http://www.w3.org/2006/time#> . @prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> . @prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> . ### Holding a role within a specific time frame TVC easily allows one to model people's roles within certain contexts (e.g., organisations) and how these change through time, while keeping track of the fact that they all refer to the same entities. The following example shows how to model the fact that a researcher holds the role of editor-in-chief for a scientific journal for a specific time interval. :john-doe a foaf:Person ; tvc:hasValue :editorial-role-situation . :editorial-role-situation a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :editor-in-chief ; tvc:withinContext :journal-of-semantics ; tvc:atTime :tenure-interval . :tenure-interval a ti:TimeInterval ; ti:hasIntervalStartDate "2020-01-01"^^xsd:date ; ti:hasIntervalEndDate "2024-12-31"^^xsd:date . :journal-of-semantics a foaf:Organization . ## Competency Questions TVC can be used for answering several questions related to values that change in time, according to some context. In the following subsections, some of them are introduced together with their respective SPARQL queries. The prefixes that are used in all the SPARQL queries provided below are defined as follows: PREFIX : <http://www.sparontologies.net/example/> PREFIX tvc: <http://www.essepuntato.it/2012/04/tvc/> PREFIX ti: <http://www.ontologydesignpatterns.org/cp/owl/timeinterval.owl#> ### CQ1 What value did a specific entity hold, within which context, and during what time interval? SELECT ?value ?context ?startDate ?endDate WHERE { :john-doe tvc:hasValue ?sit . ?sit tvc:withValue ?value ; tvc:withinContext ?context ; tvc:atTime ?interval . OPTIONAL { ?interval ti:hasIntervalStartDate ?startDate . } OPTIONAL { ?interval ti:hasIntervalEndDate ?endDate . } } ### CQ2 Which entities held a specific value within a given context? SELECT ?entity ?sit WHERE { ?entity tvc:hasValue ?sit . ?sit tvc:withValue :editor-in-chief ; tvc:withinContext :journal-of-semantics . } The Time-indexed Value in Context pattern 2012-06-08 2012-06-08 2026-09-18 TBA * **v1.1.0**: Added new documentation, including annotation properties (e.g., `bibo:doi`, `schema:codeRepository`, etc.), term properties (e.g., `vann:example`, `vs:term_status`, etc.), exemplary competency questions with their respective SPARQL queries, and a Grafoo diagram. tvc http://purl.org/spar/tvc 1.1.0 ontology design patterns time-indexed values in context at time :my-person tvc:hasValue :my-value-in-time . :my-value-in-time a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :graduate-student ; tvc:atTime :my-time-interval ; tvc:withinContext :my-university . :my-time-interval a ti:TimeInterval ; ti:hasIntervalStartDate "2017-11-01" ; ti:hasIntervalEndDate "2020-03-20" . The relation between a value-in-time situation and the particular temporal instant or time period in which the situation takes place. value in time :my-person tvc:hasValue :my-value-in-time . :my-value-in-time a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :graduate-student ; tvc:atTime :my-time-interval ; tvc:withinContext :my-university . A particular kind of time-indexed situation that represents a hub linking the entity having a particular value, the value itself and the temporal and contextual extents from which the entity-value relationship depends. Example: having the role "graduate student" in a specific time (e.g., now) and context (e.g., "University of Bologna"). for entity The relation between a time-indexed situation and an entity. temporal entity A temporal interval or instant. within context :my-person tvc:hasValue :my-value-in-time . :my-value-in-time a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :graduate-student ; tvc:atTime :my-time-interval ; tvc:withinContext :my-university . :my-university a foaf:Organization . The relation between the specific context within which the fact of the entity having the value is relevant. time instant A temporal entity with zero extent or duration. has value :my-person tvc:hasValue :my-value-in-time . :my-value-in-time a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :graduate-student ; tvc:atTime :my-time-interval ; tvc:withinContext :my-university . The relation between an entity (e.g., a person) and a particular value-in-time situation. with value :my-person tvc:hasValue :my-value-in-time . :my-value-in-time a tvc:ValueInTime ; tvc:withValue :graduate-student ; tvc:atTime :my-time-interval ; tvc:withinContext :my-university . The relation between the value held by the entity taking part to the value-in-time situation. situation A view on a set of entities. It can be seen as a 'relational context', reifying a relation. has time indexed setting The relation between an entity and a time-indexed situation. is setting for The relation between a situation and an entity. at time The relation between a time-indexed situation and a time interval.