CODEWITHSUNDEEP
neo4jcypher
bjelleklang
bjelleklang

Reputation: 496

Difference between using match({property}) and WHERE clause in Cypher

I've noticed that match(a:Vegetable{name:'Cellery'}) return a and match(a:Vegetable) where a.name='Cellery' return a gives me the same result.

Are there any practical differences between the two? The first form seems to work well when you know the property value, but is there a way to use wildcards or a LIKE condition with it?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1332

Answers (1)

Gabor Szarnyas
Gabor Szarnyas

Reputation: 5047

The EXPLAIN and PROFILE options show the execution plan of the query.

They show the exact same execution plan for both queries (on an empty database).

enter image description here

enter image description here

So performance-wise, the two notations should be completely the same.

The first form seems to work well when you know the property value, but is there a way to use wildcards or a LIKE condition with it?

That's correct, WHERE gives you a lot more flexibility. Basically, the MATCH clause only allows you to check for equalities that could be written as WHERE a.prop1 = value1 AND a.prop2 = value2 AND .... Meanwhile, WHERE allows you a lot more: the AND/OR/XOR and NOT logical operators, checking for inequalities; using STARTS WITH, CONTAINS, ENDS WITH and regular expressions; checking for node types like WHERE (a:SomeLabel) or even checking if the variables of the match are part of a pattern like WHERE NOT (a)-[:SOME_REL]->(:SomeLabel).

Upvotes: 9

Related Questions