Learning Neo4j 3.x - Second Edition

Delete data

The first rule when deleting a node is that it is not connected to other nodes anymore. Just like the other operations, it is a matter of matching before deleting a node.

Should we want to DELETE Mr. Montague, the query would be as follows:

MATCH (r:Person{lastName:"Montague"})DELETE r;

However, this will fail with an error because of the LOVES relation.

So we either delete the relation first, or we use DETACH DELETE:

MATCH (r:Person{lastName:"Montague"}DETACH DELETE r;

Now, Juliet is alone.

We have now covered a solid base of Cypher. We will see more throughout the next chapters, while the next paragraph will be useful as a reference to this basis.