Delete node and its relationships (if it has any) in Neo4j

Question

I'm trying to execute following query:

MATCH (movie:Movie {title:"test"})-[r]-() DELETE movie, r

to delete a :Movie node and all its relationships. It's all good, except if the query doesn't have any relationships, it fails to MATCH the movie. I've tried with OPTIONAL MATCH, but no luck.

I'm looking for a way to DELETE a movie node no matter if it has or doesn't have any relationships, but if it has, to DELETE them as well.

score 24 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 11 '16 at 13:05

24

In new Neo4j versions (since 2.3 I think) you can use such syntax:

MATCH (movie:Movie {title:"test"})
DETACH DELETE movie

answered Sep 11 '16 at 13:05

Lukasz Stelmach

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score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '15 at 08:51

19

There's OPTIONAL MATCH:

MATCH (movie:Movie {title:"test"})
OPTIONAL MATCH (movie)-[r]-() 
DELETE movie, r

answered Apr 04 '15 at 08:51

Stefan Armbruster

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How does this work when you have multiple relationships (e.g. when `(movie)-[r]-() ` and `()-[other]-(movie)`? – WJA Mar 15 '17 at 16:22
1

You should probably use DETACH DELETE to avoid issues with relationships – Michal Cholewiński Jul 09 '19 at 20:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 25 '21 at 06:55

0

The best option to do this today (Dec 2021) is:

MATCH (movie:Movie {title:"test"}) DETACH DELETE movie

See this: https://www.quackit.com/neo4j/tutorial/neo4j_delete_a_relationship_using_cypher.cfm

answered Dec 25 '21 at 06:55

Sarang

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Delete node and its relationships (if it has any) in Neo4j

3 Answers3