Cypher can be used for both querying and updating your graph.
The Structure of Updating Queries
- A Cypher query part can’t both match and update the graph at the same time.
- Every part can either read and match on the graph, or make updates on it.
If you read from the graph and then update the graph, your query implicitly has two parts — the reading is the first part, and the writing is the second part.
If your query only performs reads, Cypher will be lazy and not actually match the pattern until you ask for the results. In an updating query, the semantics are that all the reading will be done before any writing actually happens.
The only pattern where the query parts are implicit is when you first read and then write — any other order and you have to be explicit about your query parts.
The parts are separated using the WITH statement.
WITH is like an event horizon — it’s a barrier between a plan and the finished execution of that plan.
When you want to filter using aggregated data, you have to chain together two reading query parts — the first one does the aggregating, and the second filters on the results coming from the first one.
MATCH (n {name: 'John'})-[:FRIEND]-(friend)
WITH n, count(friend) as friendsCount
WHERE friendsCount > 3
RETURN n, friendsCount
Using WITH, you specify how you want the aggregation to happen, and that the aggregation has to be finished before Cypher can start filtering.
Here’s an example of updating the graph, writing the aggregated data to the graph:
MATCH (n {name: 'John'})-[:FRIEND]-(friend)
WITH n, count(friend) as friendsCount
SET n.friendCount = friendsCount
RETURN n.friendsCount
You can chain together as many query parts as the available memory permits.
Returning data
Any query can return data. If your query only reads, it has to return data — it serves no purpose if it doesn’t, and it is not a valid Cypher query. Queries that update the graph don’t have to return anything, but they can.
After all the parts of the query comes one final RETURN clause.
RETURN is not part of any query part — it is a period symbol at the end of a query.
The RETURN clause has three sub-clauses that come with it: SKIP/LIMIT and ORDER BY.
If you return graph elements from a query that has just deleted them — beware, you are holding a pointer that is no longer valid. Operations on that node are undefined.