2011/11/4 maxdemarzi <maxdema...@gmail.com> > I think the reason we're even having this discussion is because the cypher > syntax is close, but not quite SQL in the first place. This makes the > differences between the two languages stick out in my mind. > > I haven't had a lot of time on cypher, but as a newbie to the language I > see > a cypher query and I'm always thinking, RETURN = SELECT, START = FROM, > PATTERN = JOIN. So I'm doing the translation in my head back to SQL > anyway. > > Let's just make it as SQLish as possible to get rid of that annoying > internal translation. > > Cypher > -=-=-=-=- > START lucy = node(1000) > MATCH lucy-[:ACTS_IN]->movie<-[:ACTS_IN]-co_actor > WHERE not(movie.title = "Water World") > RETURN movie.title, count(*) > ORDER BY count(*) DESC > > PQL > -=-=- > SELECT movie.title, count(*) > FROM node(1000) as lucy > JOIN lucy-[:ACTS_IN]->movie<-[:ACTS_IN]-co_actor > WHERE movie.title <> "Water World" > ORDER BY count(*) DESC > > I like JOIN instead of MATCH. Match is "The description of the pattern is > made up of one or more paths, separated by commas." which closely resembles > JOIN in SQL which is about describing the Relationships between tables... > and once again I'm doing the translation in my head anyway, might as well > eliminate that mental waste. > > Lastly, I'm not sure about the syntax for describing relationships. > > --> and <-- or --- with ?: makes me think chicken scratch not language. > Using INCOMING, OUTGOING, OPTIONAL, AS, etc might make the query verbose, > but maybe more readable? > > I'd say the strongest part of Cypher is the "ascii art" pattern where you clearly see what you're querying for, right there and then without having to parse it into a graph into your head. Removing that would reduce my interest in this language significantly.
> -- > View this message in context: > http://neo4j-community-discussions.438527.n3.nabble.com/Neo4j-Cypher-Pickle-tp3480817p3481094.html > Sent from the Neo4j Community Discussions mailing list archive at > Nabble.com. > _______________________________________________ > Neo4j mailing list > User@lists.neo4j.org > https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user > -- Mattias Persson, [matt...@neotechnology.com] Hacker, Neo Technology www.neotechnology.com _______________________________________________ Neo4j mailing list User@lists.neo4j.org https://lists.neo4j.org/mailman/listinfo/user
