Cypher is the query language (QL) of Neo4j. Database systems need query languages in order for humans and software applications to interact with them in an efficient way. There are a number of graph query languages out there already (Gremlin, GraphQL and SparQL, to name a few), and some of these have certainly inspired the creation of Cypher, but Cypher is quite different than anything else you may have come across before. No book on Neo4j would be complete without at least spending some time on it--in spite of the fact that there are entire books, presentations, and courses available for you to review. Of course, we will do more than just get started.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Writing the Cypher syntax
- Key attributes of Cypher
- Being crude with the data
- Key operative words in Cypher
- Syntax norms
- More that you need to know...
