MATCH

Get all vertices

A pattern with a single unlabeled vertex returns every vertex in the graph.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (v)
    RETURN v
$$) as (v agtype);

Result:

                                                   v
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 {id: 0, "label": "Person", "properties": {"name": "Charlie Sheen"}}::vertex
 {id: 1, "label": "Person", "properties": {"name": "Martin Sheen"}}::vertex
 {id: 2, "label": "Person", "properties": {"name": "Michael Douglas"}}::vertex
 {id: 3, "label": "Person", "properties": {"name": "Oliver Stone"}}::vertex
 {id: 4, "label": "Person", "properties": {"name": "Rob Reiner"}}::vertex
 {id: 5, "label": "Movie", "properties": {"title": "Wall Street"}}::vertex
 {id: 6, "label": "Movie", "properties": {"title": "The American President"}}::vertex
(7 rows)

Get all vertices with a label

Add a label to the vertex pattern to filter by label.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (movie:Movie)
    RETURN movie.title
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns all Movie vertices:

          title
--------------------------
 "Wall Street"
 "The American President"
(2 rows)

Get vertices connected by any edge

-[]- matches an edge in either direction with any label.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (director {name: 'Oliver Stone'})-[]-(movie)
    RETURN movie.title
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns all vertices connected to Oliver Stone regardless of edge direction or label:

     title
---------------
 "Wall Street"
(1 row)

Filter by vertex label and property

Combine a label and a property filter in the same vertex pattern.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (:Person {name: 'Oliver Stone'})-[]-(movie:Movie)
    RETURN movie.title
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns movies connected to Oliver Stone:

     title
---------------
 "Wall Street"
(1 row)

Filter with a WHERE clause

Use WHERE to separate pattern matching from additional conditions. The following query is equivalent to the property-filter example above.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (p:Person)-[]-(movie:Movie)
    WHERE p.name = 'Oliver Stone'
    RETURN movie.title
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns movies connected to Oliver Stone:

     title
---------------
 "Wall Street"
(1 row)

Match outgoing edges

Use -> or <- to match edges in a specific direction.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (:Person {name: 'Oliver Stone'})-[]->(movie)
    RETURN movie.title
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns vertices that Oliver Stone has outgoing edges to:

     title
---------------
 "Wall Street"
(1 row)

Assign an edge to a variable

Assign the edge to a variable to access its properties or type in a RETURN clause.

The type() function returns the label of an edge.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (:Person {name: 'Oliver Stone'})-[r]->(movie)
    RETURN type(r)
$$) as (title agtype);

Returns the type of each outgoing edge from Oliver Stone:

   title
------------
 "DIRECTED"
(1 row)

Match by edge label

Use [:LABEL] to match only edges with a specific label.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (:Movie {title: 'Wall Street'})<-[:ACTED_IN]-(actor)
    RETURN actor.name
$$) as (actors_name agtype);

Returns all actors with an ACTED_IN edge to Wall Street:

    actors_name
-------------------
 "Charlie Sheen"
 "Martin Sheen"
 "Michael Douglas"
(3 rows)

Assign a labeled edge to a variable

Specify both the variable and the label together as [variable:LABEL].

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH ({title: 'Wall Street'})<-[r:ACTED_IN]-(actor)
    RETURN r.role
$$) as (role agtype);

Returns the role property from each ACTED_IN edge to Wall Street:

       role
-------------------
 "Gordon Gekko"
 "Carl Fox"
 "Bud Fox"
(3 rows)

Chain multiple edges

Connect vertex and edge patterns in sequence to match multi-hop paths.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH (charlie {name: 'Charlie Sheen'})-[:ACTED_IN]->(movie)<-[:DIRECTED]-(director)
    RETURN movie.title, director.name
$$) as (title agtype, name agtype);

Returns each movie Charlie Sheen acted in and its director:

     title      |      name
----------------+----------------
 "Wall Street"  | "Oliver Stone"
(1 row)

Syntax

Find co-actors through shared movies

The following query finds actors connected to Willem Dafoe through exactly 2 ACTED_IN edges, then returns the full path.

The relationships() function extracts the list of edges from a path variable.

SELECT * FROM cypher('graph_name', $$
    MATCH p = (actor {name: 'Willam Dafoe'})-[:ACTED_IN*2]-(co_actor)
    RETURN relationships(p)
$$) as (r agtype);

Returns the two edges in each matching path:

                                                                      r
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [{id: 0; label:"ACTED_IN"; properties: {role: "Green Goblin"}}::edge, {id: 1; label: "ACTED_IN; properties: {role: "Spiderman", actor: "Toby Maguire}}::edge]
 [{id: 0; label:"ACTED_IN"; properties: {role: "Green Goblin"}}::edge, {id: 2; label: "ACTED_IN; properties: {role: "Spiderman", actor: "Andrew Garfield"}}::edge]
(2 rows)