CREATE clause

The CREATE clause is used to create nodes and relationships in a graph.

Indexing can increase performance when executing queries. Please take a look at our documentation on indexing for more details.

1. Creating nodes

1.1. Creating a single node

Use the following query to create a single node. The RETURN clause is used to return results. A newly created node can be returned in the same query.

CREATE (n)
RETURN n;

Output:

+----+
| n  |
+----+
| () |
+----+

You can also specify a label while creating a node:

CREATE (n:Country)
RETURN n;

Output:

+------------+
| n          |
+------------+
| (:Country) |
+------------+

If you wish to add multiple labels to a node, use the following syntax:

CREATE (n:Country:City)
RETURN n;

Output:

+-----------------+
| n               |
+-----------------+
| (:Country:City) |
+-----------------+

1.2. Creating a node with properties

A node can be created with initial properties.

CREATE (n:Country {name: 'San Marino', continent: 'Europe'})
RETURN n;

Output:

+------------------------------------------------------+
| n                                                    |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| (:Country {continent: "Europe", name: "San Marino"}) |
+------------------------------------------------------+

1.3. Creating multiple nodes

To create multiple nodes, separate them with a comma.

CREATE (n:Country), (m:City)
RETURN n,m;

Output:

+------------+------------+
| n          | m          |
+------------+------------+
| (:Country) | (:City)    |
+------------+------------+

2. Creating relationships

2.1. Creating a relationship between two nodes

To create a relationship between two nodes, we need to specify which nodes either by creating them or filtering them with the WHERE clause.

CREATE (c1:Country {name: 'Belgium'}), (c2:Country {name: 'Netherlands'})
CREATE (c1)-[r:BORDERS_WITH]->(c2)
RETURN r;

Output:

+----------------+
| r              |
+----------------+
| [BORDERS_WITH] |
+----------------+

If the nodes already exist, the query would look like this:

MATCH (c1:Country),(c2:Country)
WHERE c1.name = 'Belgium' AND c2.name = 'Netherlands'
CREATE (c1)-[r:NEIGHBOURS]->(c2)
RETURN r;

Output:

+--------------+
| r            |
+--------------+
| [NEIGHBOURS] |
+--------------+

2.2. Creating a relationship with properties

You can add properties to a relationship at the time of creation.

MATCH (c1:Country),(c2:Country)
WHERE c1.name = 'Belgium' AND c2.name = 'Netherlands'
CREATE (c1)-[r:BORDERS_WITH {length: '30KM'}]->(c2)
RETURN r;

Output:

+---------------------------------+
| r                               |
+---------------------------------+
| [BORDERS_WITH {length: "30KM"}] |
+---------------------------------+

3. Creating a path

When creating a path all the entities of the pattern will be created.

CREATE p=((n:Country {name: 'Belgium'})-[r:BORDERS_WITH {length: '30KM'}]->(m:Country {name: 'Netherlands'}))
RETURN p;

Output:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| p                                                                                              |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| (:Country {name: "Belgium"})-[BORDERS_WITH {length: "30KM"}]->(:Country {name: "Netherlands"}) |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+