The DELETE clause is used to delete graph elements — nodes, relationships or paths.
For removing properties and labels, see Section 12.5, “Remove”.
Remember that you can not delete a node without also deleting relationships that start or end on said node.
Either explicitly delete the relationships, or use DETACH DELETE.
The examples start out with the following database:
Delete single node
To delete a node, use the DELETE clause.
Query
MATCH (n:Useless) DELETE n
Result
| Nodes deleted: 1 |
|---|
|
Try this query live create (_0 {`age`:36, `name`:"Andres"}) create (_1 {`age`:25, `name`:"Tobias"}) create (_2 {`age`:34, `name`:"Peter"}) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_2) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_1) ; match (n:Useless) delete n
Delete all nodes and relationships
This query isn’t for deleting large amounts of data, but is nice when playing around with small example data sets.
Query
MATCH (n) DETACH DELETE n
Result
| Nodes deleted: 3 |
|---|
| Relationships deleted: 2 |
|
Try this query live create (_0 {`age`:36, `name`:"Andres"}) create (_1 {`age`:25, `name`:"Tobias"}) create (_2 {`age`:34, `name`:"Peter"}) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_2) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_1) ; MATCH (n) DETACH DELETE n
Delete a node with all its relationships
When you want to delete a node and any relationship going to or from it, use DETACH DELETE.
Query
MATCH (n { name:'Andres' })
DETACH DELETE n
Result
| Nodes deleted: 1 |
|---|
| Relationships deleted: 2 |
|
Try this query live create (_0 {`age`:36, `name`:"Andres"}) create (_1 {`age`:25, `name`:"Tobias"}) create (_2 {`age`:34, `name`:"Peter"}) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_2) create (_0)-[:`KNOWS`]->(_1) ; MATCH (n {name:'Andres'}) DETACH DELETE n