Updating nodes and relationships

SET clause

Use the SET clause to update labels on nodes and properties on nodes and relationships.

Click here for a more detailed explanation of what can be done with SET.

Cypher supports combining multiple reads and writes using the WITH clause. In addition to combining, the MERGE clause is provided which may create patterns if they do not exist.

Creating and updating properties

The SET clause can be used to create/update the value of a property on a node or relationship:

MATCH (c:City)
WHERE c.name = 'London'
SET c.population = 8900000
RETURN c;

The SET clause can be used to create/update the value of multiple properties on nodes or relationships by separating them with a comma:

MATCH (c:City)
WHERE c.name = 'London'
SET c.population = 8900000, c.country = 'United Kingdom'
RETURN c;

Creating and updating node labels

The SET clause can be used to create/update the label on a node. If the node has a label, a new one will be added while the old one is left as is:

MATCH (c:City:Location)
SET c:City
RETURN labels(c);

Removing a property

The SET clause can be used to remove the value of a property on a node or relationship by setting it to NULL:

MATCH (c:City)
WHERE c.name = 'London'
SET c.country = NULL
RETURN c;

Copy all properties

If SET is used to copy the properties of one node/relationship to another, all the properties of the latter will be removed and replaced with the new ones:

CREATE (p1:Person {name: 'Harry'}), (p2:Person {name: 'Anna'})
SET p1 = p2
RETURN p1, p2;

Bulk update

You can use SET clause to do a bulk update. Here is an example of how to increment everyone's age by 1:

MATCH (n:Person) SET n.age = n.age + 1;