apoc.export.cypher.query

This procedure is not considered safe to run from multiple threads. It is therefore not supported by the parallel runtime (introduced in Neo4j 5.13). For more information, see the Cypher Manual → Parallel runtime.

Details
Syntax	`apoc.export.cypher.query(statement [, file, config ]) :: (file, batches, source, format, nodes, relationships, properties, time, rows, batchSize, cypherStatements, nodeStatements, relationshipStatements, schemaStatements, cleanupStatements)`
Description	Exports the `NODE` and `RELATIONSHIP` values from the given Cypher query (incl. indexes) as Cypher statements to the provided file (default: Cypher Shell).
Input arguments	Name	Type	Description
	`statement`	`STRING`	The query used to collect the data for export.
	`file`	`STRING`	The name of the file to which the data will be exported. The default is: ``.
	`config`	`MAP`	`{ stream = false :: BOOLEAN, batchSize = 20000 :: INTEGER, bulkImport = false :: BOOLEAN, timeoutSeconds = 100 :: INTEGER, compression = 'None' :: STRING, charset = 'UTF_8' :: STRING, sampling = false :: BOOLEAN, samplingConfig :: MAP }`. The default is: `{}`.
Return arguments	Name	Type	Description
	`file`	`STRING`	The name of the file to which the data was exported.
	`batches`	`INTEGER`	The number of batches the export was run in.
	`source`	`STRING`	A summary of the exported data.
	`format`	`STRING`	The format the file is exported in.
	`nodes`	`INTEGER`	The number of exported nodes.
	`relationships`	`INTEGER`	The number of exported relationships.
	`properties`	`INTEGER`	The number of exported properties.
	`time`	`INTEGER`	The duration of the export.
	`rows`	`INTEGER`	The number of rows returned.
	`batchSize`	`INTEGER`	The size of the batches the export was run in.
	`cypherStatements`	`ANY`	The executed Cypher Statements.
	`nodeStatements`	`ANY`	The executed node statements.
	`relationshipStatements`	`ANY`	The executed relationship statements.
	`schemaStatements`	`ANY`	The executed schema statements.
	`cleanupStatements`	`ANY`	The executed cleanup statements.

Config parameters

The procedure support the following config parameters:

Config parameters
Name	Type	Default	Description
`writeNodeProperties`	`BOOLEAN	false	if true export properties too.
`stream`	`BOOLEAN	false	stream the json directly to the client into the `data` field
`format`	`STRING`	cypher-shell	Export format. The following values are supported: `cypher-shell` - for import with Cypher Shell `neo4j-shell` - for import with Neo4j Shell `plain` - exports plain Cypher without `begin`, `commit`, or `await` commands. For import with Neo4j Browser
`cypherFormat`	`STRING`	create	Cypher update operation type. The following values are supported: `create` - only uses the `CREATE` clause `updateAll` - uses `MERGE` instead of `CREATE` `addStructure` - uses `MATCH` for nodes and `MERGE` for relationships `updateStructure` - uses `MERGE` and `MATCH` for nodes and relationships
useOptimizations	MAP	`{type: "UNWIND_BATCH", unwindBatchSize: 20}`	Optimizations to use for Cypher statement generation. `type` supports the following values: `NONE` - exports the file with `CREATE` statement `UNWIND_BATCH` - exports the file by batching the entities with the `UNWIND` method as explained in Michael Hunger’s article on fast batched writes. `UNWIND_BATCH_PARAMS` - similar to `UNWIND_BATCH`, but also uses parameters where appropriate
`awaitForIndexes`	`INTEGER`	300	Timeout to use for `db.awaitIndexes` when using `format: "cypher-shell"`
`ifNotExists`	`BOOLEAN`	false	If true adds the keyword `IF NOT EXISTS` to constraints and indexes

Exporting to a file

By default exporting to the file system is disabled. We can enable it by setting the following property in apoc.conf:

apoc.conf

apoc.export.file.enabled=true

For more information about accessing apoc.conf, see the chapter on Configuration Options.

If we try to use any of the export procedures without having first set this property, we’ll get the following error message:

Failed to invoke procedure: Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Export to files not enabled, please set apoc.export.file.enabled=true in your apoc.conf. Otherwise, if you are running in a cloud environment without filesystem access, use the {stream:true} config and null as a 'file' parameter to stream the export back to your client.

Export files are written to the import directory, which is defined by the server.directories.import property. This means that any file path that we provide is relative to this directory. If we try to write to an absolute path, such as /tmp/filename, we’ll get an error message similar to the following one:

Failed to invoke procedure: Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /path/to/neo4j/import/tmp/fileName (No such file or directory)

We can enable writing to anywhere on the file system by setting the following property in apoc.conf:

apoc.conf

apoc.import.file.use_neo4j_config=false

Neo4j will now be able to write anywhere on the file system, so be sure that this is your intention before setting this property.

Exporting a stream

If we don’t want to export to a file, we can stream results back in the data column instead by passing a file name of null and providing the stream:true config.

Usage Examples

The examples in this section are based on the following sample graph:

CREATE (TheMatrix:Movie {title:'The Matrix', released:1999, tagline:'Welcome to the Real World'})
CREATE (Keanu:Person {name:'Keanu Reeves', born:1964})
CREATE (Carrie:Person {name:'Carrie-Anne Moss', born:1967})
CREATE (Laurence:Person {name:'Laurence Fishburne', born:1961})
CREATE (Hugo:Person {name:'Hugo Weaving', born:1960})
CREATE (LillyW:Person {name:'Lilly Wachowski', born:1967})
CREATE (LanaW:Person {name:'Lana Wachowski', born:1965})
CREATE (JoelS:Person {name:'Joel Silver', born:1952})
CREATE
(Keanu)-[:ACTED_IN {roles:['Neo']}]->(TheMatrix),
(Carrie)-[:ACTED_IN {roles:['Trinity']}]->(TheMatrix),
(Laurence)-[:ACTED_IN {roles:['Morpheus']}]->(TheMatrix),
(Hugo)-[:ACTED_IN {roles:['Agent Smith']}]->(TheMatrix),
(LillyW)-[:DIRECTED]->(TheMatrix),
(LanaW)-[:DIRECTED]->(TheMatrix),
(JoelS)-[:PRODUCED]->(TheMatrix);

The Neo4j Browser visualization below shows the imported graph:

Figure 1. Movies Graph Visualization

Exporting a stream

The following query is an example of using apoc.export.cypher.query to export a stream:

Query

CALL apoc.export.cypher.query(
 "MATCH ()-[r]->()
 RETURN *",
 null,
 { format: "cypher-shell", stream: true })

Results
file	batches	source	format	nodes	relationships	properties	time	rows	batchSize	cypherStatements
null	1	"statement: nodes(8), rels(7)"	"cypher"	8	7	21	1	15	2000	":begin CREATE CONSTRAINT UNIQUE_IMPORT_NAME FOR (node:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) REQUIRE (node.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`) IS UNIQUE; :commit :begin UNWIND [{_id:13, properties:{tagline:"Welcome to the Real World", title:"The Matrix", released:1999}}] AS row CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Movie; UNWIND [{_id:17, properties:{born:1960, name:"Hugo Weaving"}}, {_id:16, properties:{born:1961, name:"Laurence Fishburne"}}, {_id:14, properties:{born:1964, name:"Keanu Reeves"}}, {_id:15, properties:{born:1967, name:"Carrie-Anne Moss"}}, {_id:19, properties:{born:1965, name:"Lana Wachowski"}}, {_id:18, properties:{born:1967, name:"Lilly Wachowski"}}, {_id:20, properties:{born:1952, name:"Joel Silver"}}] AS row CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Person; :commit :begin UNWIND [{start: {_id:15}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{roles:["Trinity"]}}, {start: {_id:14}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{roles:["Neo"]}}, {start: {_id:17}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{roles:["Agent Smith"]}}, {start: {_id:16}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{roles:["Morpheus"]}}] AS row MATCH (start:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.start._id}) MATCH (end:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.end._id}) CREATE (start)-[r:ACTED_IN]→(end) SET r += row.properties; UNWIND [{start: {_id:20}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{}}] AS row MATCH (start:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.start._id}) MATCH (end:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.end._id}) CREATE (start)-[r:PRODUCED]→(end) SET r += row.properties; UNWIND [{start: {_id:18}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{}}, {start: {_id:19}, end: {_id:13}, properties:{}}] AS row MATCH (start:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.start._id}) MATCH (end:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.end._id}) CREATE (start)-[r:DIRECTED]→(end) SET r += row.properties; :commit :begin MATCH (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) WITH n LIMIT 20000 REMOVE n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL` REMOVE n.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`; :commit :begin DROP CONSTRAINT UNIQUE_IMPORT_NAME; :commit "

Exporting to a file

The export to Cypher procedures all support writing to multiple files or multiple columns. We can enable this mode by passing in the config separateFiles: true

The following query exports all the ACTED_IN relationships and corresponding nodes into files with an actedIn prefix

CALL apoc.export.cypher.query(
  "MATCH ()-[r:ACTED_IN]->()
   RETURN *",
  "actedIn.cypher",
  { format: "cypher-shell", separateFiles: true })
YIELD file, batches, source, format, nodes, relationships, time, rows, batchSize
RETURN file, batches, source, format, nodes, relationships, time, rows, batchSize;

Results
file	batches	source	format	nodes	relationships	time	rows	batchSize
"actedIn.cypher"	1	"statement: nodes(10), rels(8)"	"cypher"	10	8	3	18	20000

This will result in the following files being created:

Results
Name	Size in bytes	Number of lines
actedIn.cleanup.cypher	234	6
actedIn.nodes.cypher	893	6
actedIn.relationships.cypher	757	6
actedIn.schema.cypher	109	3

Each of those files contains one particular part of the graph. Let’s have a look at their content:

actedIn.cleanup.cypher

:begin
MATCH (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`)  WITH n LIMIT 20000 REMOVE n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL` REMOVE n.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`;
:commit
:begin
DROP CONSTRAINT uniqueConstraint;
:commit

actedIn.nodes.cypher

:begin
UNWIND [{_id:28, properties:{tagline:"Welcome to the Real World", title:"The Matrix", released:1999}}, {_id:37, properties:{tagline:"Welcome to the Real World", title:"The Matrix", released:1999}}] AS row
CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Movie;
UNWIND [{_id:31, properties:{born:1961, name:"Laurence Fishburne"}}, {_id:30, properties:{born:1967, name:"Carrie-Anne Moss"}}, {_id:42, properties:{born:1964, name:"Keanu Reeves"}}, {_id:0, properties:{born:1960, name:"Hugo Weaving"}}, {_id:29, properties:{born:1964, name:"Keanu Reeves"}}, {_id:38, properties:{born:1960, name:"Hugo Weaving"}}, {_id:43, properties:{born:1967, name:"Carrie-Anne Moss"}}, {_id:57, properties:{born:1961, name:"Laurence Fishburne"}}] AS row
CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Person;
:commit

actedIn.relationships.cypher

:begin
UNWIND [{start: {_id:31}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:["Morpheus"]}}, {start: {_id:42}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:["Neo"]}}, {start: {_id:38}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:["Agent Smith"]}}, {start: {_id:0}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:["Agent Smith"]}}, {start: {_id:29}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:["Neo"]}}, {start: {_id:43}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:["Trinity"]}}, {start: {_id:30}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:["Trinity"]}}, {start: {_id:57}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:["Morpheus"]}}] AS row
MATCH (start:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.start._id})
MATCH (end:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.end._id})
CREATE (start)-[r:ACTED_IN]->(end) SET r += row.properties;
:commit

actedIn.schema.cypher

:begin
CREATE CONSTRAINT uniqueConstraint FOR (node:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) REQUIRE (node.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`) IS UNIQUE;
:commit

We can then apply these files to our destination Neo4j instance, either by streaming their contents into Cypher Shell or by using the procedures described in Running Cypher fragments.

We can also use the separateFiles when returning a stream of export statements. The results will appear in columns named nodeStatements, relationshipStatements, cleanupStatements, and schemaStatements rather than cypherStatements.

The following query returns a stream all the ACTED_IN relationships and corresponding nodes

CALL apoc.export.cypher.query(
  "MATCH ()-[r:ACTED_IN]->()
   RETURN *",
  null,
  { format: "cypher-shell", separateFiles: true })
YIELD nodes, relationships, properties, nodeStatements, relationshipStatements, cleanupStatements, schemaStatements
RETURN nodes, relationships, properties, nodeStatements, relationshipStatements, cleanupStatements, schemaStatements;

Results
nodes	relationships	properties	nodeStatements	relationshipStatements	cleanupStatements	schemaStatements
10	8	30	":begin UNWIND [{_id:28, properties:{tagline:\"Welcome to the Real World\", title:\"The Matrix\", released:1999}}, {_id:37, properties:{tagline:\"Welcome to the Real World\", title:\"The Matrix\", released:1999}}] AS row CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Movie; UNWIND [{_id:0, properties:{born:1960, name:\"Hugo Weaving\"}}, {_id:42, properties:{born:1964, name:\"Keanu Reeves\"}}, {_id:31, properties:{born:1961, name:\"Laurence Fishburne\"}}, {_id:29, properties:{born:1964, name:\"Keanu Reeves\"}}, {_id:30, properties:{born:1967, name:\"Carrie-Anne Moss\"}}, {_id:43, properties:{born:1967, name:\"Carrie-Anne Moss\"}}, {_id:38, properties:{born:1960, name:\"Hugo Weaving\"}}, {_id:57, properties:{born:1961, name:\"Laurence Fishburne\"}}] AS row CREATE (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row._id}) SET n += row.properties SET n:Person; :commit "	":begin UNWIND [{start: {_id:31}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:[\"Morpheus\"]}}, {start: {_id:38}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:[\"Agent Smith\"]}}, {start: {_id:0}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:[\"Agent Smith\"]}}, {start: {_id:30}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:[\"Trinity\"]}}, {start: {_id:29}, end: {_id:28}, properties:{roles:[\"Neo\"]}}, {start: {_id:43}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:[\"Trinity\"]}}, {start: {_id:42}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:[\"Neo\"]}}, {start: {_id:57}, end: {_id:37}, properties:{roles:[\"Morpheus\"]}}] AS row MATCH (start:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.start._id}) MATCH (end:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`: row.end._id}) CREATE (start)-[r:ACTED_IN]→(end) SET r += row.properties; :commit "	":begin MATCH (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) WITH n LIMIT 20000 REMOVE n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL` REMOVE n.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`; :commit :begin DROP CONSTRAINT uniqueConstraint; :commit "	":begin CREATE CONSTRAINT uniqueConstraint FOR (node:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) REQUIRE (node.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`) IS UNIQUE; :commit "

We can then copy/paste the content of each of these columns (excluding the double quotes) into a Cypher Shell session, or into a local file that we stream into a Cypher Shell session. If we want to export Cypher statements that can be pasted into the Neo4j Browser query editor, we need to use the config format: "plain".

More documentation of apoc.export.cypher.query