Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Graph Stores

Graph stores, or graph databases, literally store data as a graph. What that means is the data is represented as a series of nodes and how they relate to each other. In the simplest case, a graph with only one node, all that need be recorded is the record and its properties. The properties list can be as short as one or as long as a few million (perhaps more).

Rather than allow that awkwardness to grow, most will start creating new nodes sooner, each node having its own properties and also explicit relationships that tie each node to other nodes. It is the relationships that organize the nodes, and the structure is therefore flexible. A graph can look like a list or a map or a tree or something else entirely.

Graph databases are ...