SQL All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 5

Exploring Property Graph Queries

IN THIS CHAPTER

Describing property graph queries

Exploring how property graph queries work

Experimenting with property graph queries

For most business operations, relational databases work perfectly fine for defining the entities contained in the business (such as employees, departments, customers, and orders) and their relationships (employees work in a department, and customers place orders). But not all data fits nicely in a relational database. One sticky point with the relational database model is how it handles many-to-many relationships between entities and how the different entities relate to each other outside the defined relationships (such as can an employee also be a customer?). The theory of property graph databases attempts to expand on these relationships, making it easier to perform complex SQL queries against complex data. The SQL:2023 specifications have added features to incorporate property graphs into the standard SQL language. This chapter explores just what property graph databases are and how to query them using SQL/PGQ.

What Are Property Graph Queries?

Property graph databases (also called graph databases) allow ...