Performance of CYPHER 2.3 in Neo4j query

Question

I am having a problem in a Neo4j query. Suppose I have a Node type called App. The App nodes have the fields "m_id" and "info". I want to build a query to create a relationship between the nodes where the field "info" is equal.

This is the query:

MATCH (a:App {m_id:'SOME_VALUE' }),(b:App {info: a.info}) WHERE ID(a)<>ID(b) AND NOT (b)-[:INFO]->(a) MERGE (a)-[r:INFO]->(b) RETURN b.m_id;

I also have indexes for both fields:

CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (a:App) ASSERT a.m_id IS UNIQUE;
CREATE INDEX ON :App(info);

But the thing is I get very slow queries, with access in all the records of the App nodes.

This is the profile of the query:

+---------------+--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Operator      | Rows   | DB Hits | Identifiers     | Other                                                                                                                          |
+---------------+--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +ColumnFilter |      0 |       0 | b.m_id          | keep columns b.m_id                                                                                                            |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Extract      |      0 |       0 | a, b, b.m_id, r | b.m_id                                                                                                                         |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Merge(Into)  |      0 |       1 | a, b, r         | (a)-[r:INFO]->(b)                                                                                                             |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Eager        |      0 |       0 | a, b            |                                                                                                                                |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Filter       |      0 |  2000000 | a, b            | Ands(b.info == a.info, NOT(IdFunction(a) == IdFunction(b)), NOT(nonEmpty(PathExpression((b)-[anon[104]:INFO]->(a), true)))) |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +SchemaIndex  | 184492 |  1000000 | a, b            | {  AUTOSTRING0}; :App(m_id)                                                                                                    |
| |             +--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +NodeByLabel  | 184492 |  1000001 | b               | :App                                                                                                                           |
+---------------+--------+---------+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Answer 1

Try finding a by itself, using a WITH clause to put a.info into a temporary variable that is used by a separate MATCH clause for b, as in:

MATCH (a:App { m_id:'SOME_VALUE' })
WITH a, a.info AS a_info
MATCH (b:App { info: a_info })
WHERE a <> b AND NOT (b)-[:INFO]->(a)
MERGE (a)-[r:INFO]->(b)
RETURN b.m_id;

It seems that indices tend not to be used when comparing the properties of 2 nodes. The use of a_info removes that impediment.

If the profile of the above shows that one or both indices are not being used, you can try adding index hints:

MATCH (a:App { m_id:'SOME_VALUE' })
USING INDEX a:App(m_id)
WITH a, a.info AS a_info
MATCH (b:App { info: a_info })
USING INDEX b:App(info)
WHERE a <> b AND NOT (b)-[:INFO]->(a)
MERGE (a)-[r:INFO]->(b)
RETURN b.m_id;

Answer 2

I figure out a solution using OPTIONAL MATCH:

MATCH (a:App {m_id:'SOME_VALUE' }) OPTIONAL MATCH (a),(b:App {info: a.info}) WHERE ID(a)<>ID(b) AND NOT (b)-[:INFO]->(a) MERGE (a)-[r:INFO]->(b) RETURN b.m_id;

This is the profile of the query:

+----------------+------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Operator       | Rows | DB Hits | Identifiers     | Other                                                                                                      |
+----------------+------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +ColumnFilter  |    0 |       0 | b.m_id          | keep columns b.m_id                                                                                        |
| |              +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Extract       |    0 |       0 | a, b, b.m_id, r | b.m_id                                                                                                     |
| |              +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Merge(Into)   |    0 |       1 | a, b, r         | (a)-[r:INFO]->(b)                                                                                         |
| |              +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +Eager         |    0 |       0 | a, b            |                                                                                                            |
| |              +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +OptionalMatch |    0 |       0 | a, b            |                                                                                                            |
| |\             +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | +Filter      |    0 |       0 | a, b            | Ands(NOT(IdFunction(a) == IdFunction(b)), NOT(nonEmpty(PathExpression((b)-[anon[109]:INFO]->(a), true)))) |
| | |            +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | +SchemaIndex |    0 |       0 | a, b            | a.info; :App(info)                                                                                       |
| | |            +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | +Argument    |    0 |       0 | a               |                                                                                                            |
| |              +------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +SchemaIndex   |    0 |       1 | a               | {  AUTOSTRING0}; :App(m_id)                                                                                |
+----------------+------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+