Introduction to Neo4j and Cypher
Neo4j is the world’s leading graph database. Its architecture is optimized to store, retrieve, and traverse graphs as nodes and relationships. It takes a property graph approach, which is beneficial for fast traversals and operations.
Neo4j uses Cypher as its query language, which makes it easy to represent traversals. Cypher is a declarative language for describing visual patterns in graphs using ASCII-art-like syntax. This makes it easy to read and comprehend how the data is connected as nodes and relationships in graphs.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Introducing Neo4j and graph database concepts
- Installing the Neo4j Desktop
- A visual tour of Neo4j Desktop
- Using Neo4j Desktop
- Working with local DBMSs
If you are already familiar with these basic concepts and are comfortable using Neo4j Desktop and Browser, you can skip this chapter and move on to the next ones.