Query recursive relationship chains in Neo4j with Cypher

Question

I have a graph database that models the metadata for messages and the fields that may be contained in these messages. Some of these fields may be “groups,” which are groups of other fields. I'm trying to ask Neo, "what messages use this group?" The following is a list of path types that you can use to receive a message from a group:

message-[:INLINE]->group (the fields of a group are used inline on a message) message-[:FIELDREF]->(fref)-[:FIELD]->(field)-[:DATATYPE]->group (the group is used as a data type by a field on the message) 

The second chain is recursive. In other words, the segment - [: FIELDREF] → (fref) - [: FIELD] → (field) - [: DATATYPE] - (group) can be repeated again and again, before finally reaching the group of interest to me.

So, I want to know how I can request a duplicate chain of relationships, and not just a few (like * after the relationship name) for each individual element in the path?

To conclude, you can either go to the group from the message by going to the [: INLINE] link, which can then follow the n number of "fieldref-field-datatype-group" chains. OR you can go to the group from the message by moving n number of chains "fieldref-field-datatype-group".

 START group=node({sourceGroupId}) ... ? ? ? ... 

So I want something like [?: INLINE] → 0..n nets (fieldref-field-datatype-group).

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

According to the Cypher link at http://docs.neo4j.org/chunked/milestone/query-match.html ...

12.2.13. Length Length Ratio Nodes that are a variable number of ratios → node are deleted can be found using the following syntax: - [: TYPE * minHops..maxHops] →. minHops and maxHops are optional and default to 1 and infinity, respectively. When no ratings are given, points may be omitted.

An example of what I think you are looking for is below. I set at least two.

 start n=node:node_auto_index(name='Neo') match n-[r:KNOWS*2..]-m return n as Neo,r,m 

You can check this request verbatim at http://console.neo4j.org