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.

Auspicious

Answer 1

There's OPTIONAL MATCH:

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

Stearic

How does this work when you have multiple relationships (e.g. when (movie)-[r]-() and ()-[other]-(movie)? – Citronellal

You should probably use DETACH DELETE to avoid issues with relationships – Toodleoo

Answer 2

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

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

Adeno

Answer 3

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

Circumgyration