Create indexes

Creating an index is done with the CREATE [index_type] INDEX [index_name] command. If no index type is specified in the create command a range index is created.

The following index types are included in this category:

It is recommended to give the index a name when it is created. If the index is not explicitly named, it gets an auto-generated name.

The index name must be unique among both indexes and constraints.

The CREATE INDEX command is optionally idempotent. This mean that its default behavior is to throw an error if an attempt is made to create the same index twice. If IF NOT EXISTS is appended to the command, no error is thrown and nothing happens should an index with the same name or same schema and index type already exist. It may still throw an error if conflicting constraints exist, such as constraints with the same name or schema and backing index type. Instead, an informational notification is returned showing the existing index which blocks the creation.

Index configuration settings can be specified using the OPTIONS clause. However, not all indexes have available configuration settings. In those cases, nothing needs to be specified and the OPTIONS map should be omitted from the query.

Creating an index requires the CREATE INDEX privilege.

An index cannot be used while its state is POPULATING, which occurs immediately after it is created. To check the state of an index — whether it is ONLINE (usable) or POPULATING (still being built; the populationPercent column shows the progress of the index creation) — run the following command: SHOW INDEXES.

Create a range index

Creating a range index can be done with the CREATE INDEX command. Note that the index name must be unique.

Range indexes have no supported index configuration.

Supported predicates

Range indexes support most types of predicates:

Predicate Syntax

Equality check.

 
n.prop = value

List membership check.

 
n.prop IN list

Existence check.

 
n.prop IS NOT NULL

Range search.

 
n.prop > value

Prefix search.

 
STARTS WITH

Examples

Create a single-property range index for nodes

The following statement creates a named range index on all nodes labeled with Person and which have the surname property.

Creating a node range index on a single property
CREATE INDEX node_range_index_name FOR (n:Person) ON (n.surname)

Create a single-property range index for relationships

The following statement creates a named range index on all relationships with relationship type KNOWS and property since.

Creating a relationship range index on a single property
CREATE INDEX rel_range_index_name FOR ()-[r:KNOWS]-() ON (r.since)

Create a composite range index for nodes

A range index on multiple properties is also called a composite index. For node range indexes, only nodes with the specified label and that contain all the specified properties are added to the index.

The following statement creates a named composite range index on all nodes labeled with Person and which have both an age and country property.

Creating a composite node range index on multiple properties
CREATE INDEX composite_range_node_index_name FOR (n:Person) ON (n.age, n.country)

Create a composite range index for relationships

A range index on multiple properties is also called a composite index. For relationship range indexes, only relationships with the specified type and that contain all the specified properties are added to the index.

The following statement creates a named composite range index on all relationships labeled with PURCHASED and which have both a date and amount property.

Creating a composite relationship range index on multiple properties
CREATE INDEX composite_range_rel_index_name FOR ()-[r:PURCHASED]-() ON (r.date, r.amount)

Create a range index using a parameter

The following statement creates a named range index on all nodes with a Person label and a firstname property using a parameter for the index name.

Parameters
{
  "name": "range_index_param"
}
Creating a node range index on a single property
CREATE INDEX $name FOR (n:Person) ON (n.firstname)

Create a range index only if it does not already exist

If it is not known whether an index exists or not, add IF NOT EXISTS to ensure it does.

Creating a range index with IF NOT EXISTS
CREATE INDEX node_range_index_name IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (n:Person) ON (n.surname)

The index is not created if there already exists an index with the same schema and type, same name or both. Instead an informational notification is returned.

Notification
`CREATE RANGE INDEX node_range_index_name IF NOT EXISTS FOR (e:Person) ON (e.surname)` has no effect.
`RANGE INDEX node_range_index_name FOR (e:Person) ON (e.surname)` already exists.

Create a text index

Creating a text index can be done with the CREATE TEXT INDEX command. Note that the index name must be unique.

Text indexes have no supported index configuration.

See Trigram indexing for information about how text indexes process STRING values.

Supported predicates

Text indexes only solve predicates operating on STRING values.

The following predicates that only operate on STRING values are always solvable by a text index:

  • STARTS WITH

  • ENDS WITH

  • CONTAINS

However, other predicates are only used when it is known that the property is compared to a STRING:

  • n.prop = "string"

  • n.prop IN ["a", "b", "c"]

This means that a text index is not able to solve, for example, e.g. a.prop = b.prop, unless a property type constraint also exists on the property.

Text indexes support the following predicates:

Predicate Syntax

Equality check.

 
n.prop = 'example_string'

List membership check.

 
n.prop IN ['abc', 'example_string', 'neo4j']

Prefix search.

 
STARTS WITH

Suffix search.

 
ENDS WITH

Substring search.

 
CONTAINS

The above set of predicates can be extended with the use of type constraints. See the section about index compatibility and type constraints for more information.

Text indexes are only used for exact query matches. To perform approximate matches (including, for example, variations and typos), and to compute a similarity score between STRING values, use semantic full-text indexes instead.

Trigram indexing

Text indexes uses trigram indexing. This means that STRING values are indexed into overlapping trigrams, each containing three Unicode code points. For example, the word "developer" would be indexed by the following trigrams: ["dev", "eve", "vel", "elo", "lop", "ope", "per"].

This makes text indexes particularly suitable for substring (CONTAINS) and suffix (ENDS WITH) searches, as well as prefix searches (STARTS WITH). For example, searches like CONTAINS "vel" or ENDS WITH "per" can be efficiently performed by directly looking up the relevant trigrams in the index. By comparison, range indexes, which indexes STRING values lexicographically (see Range index-backed ORDER BY for more information) and are therefore more suited for prefix searches, would need to scan through all indexed values to check if "vel" existed anywhere within the text. For more information, see The impact of indexes on query performance → Text indexes.

Examples

Create a node text index

The following statement creates a named text index on all nodes labeled with Person and which have the nickname STRING property.

Creating a node text index on a single property
CREATE TEXT INDEX node_text_index_nickname FOR (n:Person) ON (n.nickname)

Create a relationship text index

The following statement creates a named text index on all relationships with relationship type KNOWS and STRING property interest.

Creating a relationship text index on a single property
CREATE TEXT INDEX rel_text_index_name FOR ()-[r:KNOWS]-() ON (r.interest)

Create a text index using a parameter

The following statement creates a named text index on all nodes with the Person label the favoriteColor STRING property using a parameter for the index name.

Parameters
{
  "name": "text_index_param"
}
Creating a node text index on a single property
CREATE TEXT INDEX $name FOR (n:Person) ON (n.favoriteColor)

Create a text index only if it does not already exist

If it is not known whether an index exists or not, add IF NOT EXISTS to ensure it does.

The following statement attempts to create a named text index on all nodes labeled with Person and which have the nickname STRING property.

Creating a text index with IF NOT EXISTS
CREATE TEXT INDEX node_index_name IF NOT EXISTS FOR (n:Person) ON (n.nickname)

Note that the index is not created if there already exists an index with the same schema and type, same name or both. Instead, an informational notification is returned.

Notification
`CREATE TEXT INDEX node_index_name IF NOT EXISTS FOR (e:Person) ON (e.nickname)` has no effect.
`TEXT INDEX node_text_index_nickname FOR (e:Person) ON (e.nickname)` already exists.

Create a point index

Creating a point index can be done with the CREATE POINT INDEX command. Note that the index name must be unique.

Point indexes have supported index configuration.

Supported predicates

Point indexes only solve predicates operating on POINT values.

Point indexes support the following predicates:

Predicate Syntax

Property point value.

 
n.prop = point({x: value, y: value})

Within bounding box.

 
point.withinBBox(n.prop, lowerLeftCorner, upperRightCorner)

Distance.

 
point.distance(n.prop, center) < = distance

The above set of predicates can be extended with the use of type constraints. See The impact of indexes on query performances → Property type constraints for more information.

To learn more about the spatial data types supported by Cypher®, see the page about Spatial values.

Examples

Create a node point index

The following statement creates a named point index on all nodes labeled with Person and which have the sublocation POINT property.

Creating a node point index on a single property
CREATE POINT INDEX node_point_index_name FOR (n:Person) ON (n.sublocation)

Create a relationship point index

The following statement creates a named point index on all relationships with relationship type STREET and POINT property intersection.

Creating a relationship point index on a single property
CREATE POINT INDEX rel_point_index_name FOR ()-[r:STREET]-() ON (r.intersection)

Create a point index using a parameter

The following statement creates a named point index on all relationships with relationship type STREET and POINT property coordinate using a parameter for the index name.

Parameters
{
  "name": "point_index_param"
}
Creating a relationship point index on a single property
CREATE POINT INDEX $name FOR ()-[r:STREET]-() ON (r.coordinate)

Create a point index only if it does not already exist

If it is not known whether an index exists or not, add IF NOT EXISTS to ensure it does.

Creating a point index with IF NOT EXISTS
CREATE POINT INDEX node_point_index IF NOT EXISTS
FOR (n:Person) ON (n.sublocation)

Note that the index is not created if there already exists an index with the same schema and type, same name or both. Instead, an informational notification is returned.

Notification
`CREATE POINT INDEX node_point_index IF NOT EXISTS FOR (e:Person) ON (e.sublocation)` has no effect.
`POINT INDEX node_point_index_name FOR (e:Person) ON (e.sublocation)` already exists.

Create a point index specifying the index configuration

To create a point index with a specific index configuration, the indexConfig settings in the OPTIONS clause. The valid configuration settings are:

  • spatial.cartesian.min (default value: [-1000000.0, -1000000.0])

  • spatial.cartesian.max (default value: [1000000.0, 1000000.0])

  • spatial.cartesian-3d.min (default value: [-1000000.0, -1000000.0, -1000000.0])

  • spatial.cartesian-3d.max (default value: [1000000.0, 1000000.0, 1000000.0`])

  • spatial.wgs-84.min (default value: [-180.0, -90.0])

  • spatial.wgs-84.max (default value: [-180.0, -90.0])

  • spatial.wgs-84-3d.min (default value: [-180.0, -90.0, -1000000.0])

  • spatial.wgs-84-3d.max (default value: [180.0, 90.0, 1000000.0])

The following statement creates a point index specifying the spatial.cartesian.min and spatial.cartesian.max settings.

Creating a point index with index configuration
CREATE POINT INDEX point_index_with_config
FOR (n:Label) ON (n.prop2)
OPTIONS {
  indexConfig: {
    `spatial.cartesian.min`: [-100.0, -100.0],
    `spatial.cartesian.max`: [100.0, 100.0]
  }
}

Note that the wgs-84 and 3D cartesian settings, which are not specified in this example, are set with their respective default values.

Create a token lookup index

Two token lookup indexes are created by default when creating a Neo4j database (one node label lookup index and one relationship type lookup index). Only one node label and one relationship type lookup index can exist at the same time.

If a token lookup index has been dropped, it can be recreated with the CREATE LOOKUP INDEX command. Note that the index name must be unique.

Token lookup indexes have no supported index configuration.

Supported predicates

Token lookup indexes are present by default and solve only node label and relationship type predicates:

Predicate Syntax (example)

Node label predicate.

 
MATCH (n:Label)
MATCH (n)
WHERE n:Label

Relationship type predicate.

 
MATCH ()-[r:REL]->()
MATCH ()-[r]->()
WHERE r:REL

Token lookup indexes improve the performance of Cypher queries and the population of other indexes. Dropping these indexes may lead to severe performance degradation.

Examples

Create a node label lookup index

The following statement creates a named node label lookup index on all nodes with one or more labels:

Creating a node label lookup index
CREATE LOOKUP INDEX node_label_lookup_index FOR (n) ON EACH labels(n)

Only one node label lookup index can exist at a time.

Create a relationship type lookup index

The following statement creates a named relationship type lookup index on all relationships with any relationship type.

Creating a relationship type lookup index
CREATE LOOKUP INDEX rel_type_lookup_index FOR ()-[r]-() ON EACH type(r)

Only one relationship type lookup index can exist at a time.

Create a token lookup index only if it does not already exist

If it is not known whether an index exists or not, add IF NOT EXISTS to ensure it does.

Creating a node label lookup index with IF NOT EXISTS
CREATE LOOKUP INDEX node_label_lookup IF NOT EXISTS FOR (n) ON EACH labels(n)

The index is not created if there already exists an index with the same schema and type, same name or both. Instead, an informational notification is returned.

Notification
`CREATE LOOKUP INDEX node_label_lookup IF NOT EXISTS FOR (e) ON EACH labels(e)` has no effect.
`LOOKUP INDEX node_label_lookup_index FOR (e) ON EACH labels(e)` already exists.

Creating an index when a conflicting index or constraint exists

Failure to create an already existing index

Create an index on the property title on nodes with the Book label, when that index already exists.

Creating a duplicate index
CREATE INDEX bookTitleIndex FOR (book:Book) ON (book.title)

In this case, the index can not be created because it already exists.

Error message
There already exists an index (:Book {title}).

Using IF NOT EXISTS when creating the index would result in no error and would not create a new index.

Failure to create an index with the same name as an already existing index

Create a named index on the property numberOfPages on nodes with the Book label, when an index with the given name already exists. The index type of the existing index does not matter.

Creating an index with a duplicated name
CREATE INDEX indexOnBooks FOR (book:Book) ON (book.numberOfPages)

In this case, the index cannot be created because there already exists an index with the given name.

Error message
There already exists an index called 'indexOnBooks'.

Using IF NOT EXISTS when creating the index would result in no error and would not create a new index.

Failure to create an index when a constraint already exists

Create an index on the property isbn on nodes with the Book label, when an index-backed constraint already exists on that schema. This is only relevant for range indexes.

Creating a range index on same schema as existing index-backed constraint
CREATE INDEX bookIsbnIndex FOR (book:Book) ON (book.isbn)

In this case, the index can not be created because an index-backed constraint already exists on that label and property combination.

Error message
There is a uniqueness constraint on (:Book {isbn}), so an index is already created that matches this.

Failure to create an index with the same name as an already existing constraint

Create a named index on the property numberOfPages on nodes with the Book label, when a constraint with the given name already exists.

Creating an index with same name as an existing constraint
CREATE INDEX bookRecommendations FOR (book:Book) ON (book.recommendations)

In this case, the index can not be created because there already exists a constraint with the given name.

Error message
There already exists a constraint called 'bookRecommendations'.