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Cypher Functions

Reference for supported Cypher aggregation functions.

COUNT​

Count rows or values.

COUNT(*)​

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN COUNT(*)

COUNT(expression)​

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN COUNT(p.age)

COUNT(DISTINCT)​

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN COUNT(DISTINCT p.city)

AVG​

Average of numeric values.

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN AVG(p.age)

AVG with DISTINCT​

MATCH (o:Order) RETURN AVG(DISTINCT o.discount)

SUM​

Sum of numeric values.

MATCH (o:Order) RETURN SUM(o.amount)

MIN​

Minimum value.

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN MIN(p.age)

MAX​

Maximum value.

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN MAX(p.age)

COLLECT​

Collect values into an array.

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN COLLECT(p.name)

With DISTINCT​

MATCH (p:Person) RETURN COLLECT(DISTINCT p.city)

ID​

Returns the internal UUID of a node or relationship.

MATCH (p:Person {name: 'Alice'})
RETURN ID(p)

With Relationships​

MATCH (a)-[r:KNOWS]->(b)
RETURN ID(r)

Path Functions​

These functions extract nodes or relationships from a path variable obtained via variable-length matches.

nodes(path)​

Extracts all nodes from a path. When you use a named path in a MATCH clause (e.g., MATCH p = (a)-[:R]->(b)), the path variable p contains an alternating sequence of nodes and edges: [node₀, edge₀, node₁, edge₁, ..., nodeₙ]. The nodes() function returns only the node elements.

MATCH p = (start:Person)-[:KNOWS*1..2]->(end:Person)
WHERE start.name = 'Alice'
RETURN nodes(p) AS pathNodes

Example: Given a path Alice --[KNOWS]--> Bob --[KNOWS]--> Carol, nodes(p) returns [Alice, Bob, Carol].

relationships(path)​

Extracts all relationships/edges from a path. Similar to nodes(), but returns only the edge elements from the alternating sequence.

MATCH p = (a:Person)-[:KNOWS*2]->(b:Person)
WHERE a.name = 'Alice'
RETURN relationships(p) AS pathEdges

Example: Given a path Alice --[KNOWS]--> Bob --[KNOWS]--> Carol, relationships(p) returns [[KNOWS], [KNOWS]].

Combined Usage​

Often used together to inspect both the nodes and edges of a path:

MATCH p = (a)-[r]->(b)-[r2]->(c)
RETURN nodes(p) AS allNodes,
       relationships(p) AS allRelationships

This is useful for debugging path-based queries and for applications that need to analyze the full structure of traversed paths.

Using Aliases​

Combine with aliases for cleaner output:

MATCH (p:Person) 
RETURN p.city, 
       COUNT(*) AS total,
       AVG(p.age) AS avgAge,
       MIN(p.age) AS minAge,
       MAX(p.age) AS maxAge
ORDER BY total DESC