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I've seen that sometimes CREATE is used to create nodes, and in other situations, MERGE is used. What's the difference, and when should one be used in place of another?

Kelvin Lawrence
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KWriter
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2 Answers2

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CREATE does just what it says. It creates, and if that means creating duplicates, well then it creates.

MERGE does the same thing as CREATE, but also checks to see if a node already exists with the properties you specify. If it does, then it doesn't create. This helps avoid duplicates.

Here's an example: I use CREATE twice to create a person with the same name.

Anton Menshov
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Virat Mehar
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CREATE should be used when you are absolutely certain that the information doesn't exist in the database (for example, when you are loading data). MERGE is used whenever there is a possibility that the node or relationship already exists and you don’t need to duplicate it. MERGE shouldn't always be used as it’s considerably slower than the create clause.

KWriter
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