Neo4j Relationship name

Question

Could you tell me how to pass the contents of a variable as a relation name in Neo4j?

My code is:

CREATE (a)-[r:{linkParam}]->(b)

but it does not work.

Answer 1

Basically, you have to options:

(1) Concatenate the string client-side, i.e. create a query string JavaScript that already has the relationship type (e.g. "CREATE (a)-[r:" + linkParam + "]->(b)". Note that this might introduce SQL injection-style vulnerabilities in your system.

(2) Use the APOC library:

CALL apoc.create.relationship(a, {linkParam}, b)

This creates a relationship with a dynamic type.

Note that for Neo4j 3.2+, you can use the new parameter syntax, i.e. $linkParam instead of {linkParam}.