# Tags should take arguments

Rather than being simple strings,
tags on content should be able to take arguments.
Arguments could be positional
(for example, `trip(Boston, Kingsport)` or `smiles(Alice)` on a photo, `history(Valletta)` or `criticism(CSS)` on a blog post),
key-value pairs
(`trip(from: Boston, to: Kingsport)`),
or an unordered set of nested tags
(`road{Kingsport, Boston} == road{Boston, Kingsport}`).

This would allow queries like `smiles(Alice) smiles(Bob)` to find all pictures where both Alice and Bob are smiling,
`trip(?, ?)` to find all pictures from trips,
and `trip(?, Kingsport)` to find all pictures from trips to Kingsport.

Like normal tags, these tags do not need a predefined schema; they can, and probably should, be ad hoc by default.

## See also

- [Datalog](!W)
- [Labeled-property graph databases](!W "Graph database#Labeled-property graph")
- [RDF](!W "Resource Description Framework")

## Page metadata

URL: <https://dbohdan.com/tags-with-arguments.md>

Published 2020-10-16, updated 2025-10-20.

Tags:

- data
- essay
- idea
- information retrieval
- my work
- UI/UX