Data type mapping between Neo4j and Spark

Background

Neo4j and Cypher^® provide a type system that describes how values are stored in the database, but these types do not always exactly match what Spark provides.

In some cases, there are data types that Neo4j provides that Spark does not have an equivalent for, and vice versa.

Data type mappings

Table 1. Spark to Neo4j type mapping reference
Neo4j type	Spark type	Notes
`String`	`string`	Example: `"Hello"`
`Integer`	`long`	Example: `12345`
`Float`	`double`	Example: `3.141592`
`Boolean`	`boolean`	Example: `true`
`Point`	`struct { type: string, srid: integer, x: double, y: double, z: double }`	For more information on spatial types in Neo4j, see Spatial values
`Date`	`date`	Example: `2020-09-11`
`Time`	`struct { type: string, value: string }`	Example: `[offset-time, 12:14:08.209Z]`
`LocalTime`	`struct { type: string, value: string }`	Example: `[local-time, 12:18:11.628]`
`DateTime`	`timestamp`	Example: `2020-09-11 12:17:39.192`
`LocalDateTime`	`timestamp`	Example: `2020-09-11 12:14:49.081`
`Duration`	`struct { type: string, months: long, days: long, seconds: long, nanonseconds: integer, value: string }`	See Temporal functions: duration
`Node`	`struct { <id>: long, <labels>: array[string], (PROPERTIES) }`	Nodes in Neo4j are represented as property containers; that is they appear as structs with properties corresponding to whatever properties were in the node. For ease of use it is usually better to return individual properties than a node from a query.
`Relationship`	`struct { <rel.id>: long, <rel.type>: string, <source.id>: long, <target.id>: long, (PROPERTIES) }`	Relationships are returned as maps, identifying the source and target of the relationship, its type, along with properties (if any) of the relationship. For ease of use it is usually better to return individual properties than a relationship from a query.
`Path`	`string`	Example: `path[(322)←[20280:AIRLINE]-(33510)]`. For ease of use it is recommended to use path functions to return individual properties/aspects of a path from a query.
`[Array of same type]`	`array[element]`	In Neo4j, arrays must be consistently typed (i.e., an array of all Float values). The inner Spark type matches the type mapping above.