Traversal

This section describes traversing into another graph.

The traversal API described in this section has been deprecated and will be removed in a later release of Neo4j.

For more information about traversals, see The traversal framework.

1. The Matrix

This is the first graph to traverse into:

examples matrix
Figure 1. Matrix node space view

The source code of this example is found here: NewMatrix.java

Friends and friends of friends:

private Traverser getFriends( Transaction transaction, final Node person )
{
    TraversalDescription td = transaction.traversalDescription()
            .breadthFirst()
            .relationships( RelTypes.KNOWS, Direction.OUTGOING )
            .evaluator( Evaluators.excludeStartPosition() );
    return td.traverse( person );
}

You can perform the actual traversal and print the results:

int numberOfFriends = 0;
String output = neoNode.getProperty( "name" ) + "'s friends:\n";
Traverser friendsTraverser = getFriends( tx, neoNode );
for ( Path friendPath : friendsTraverser )
{
    output += "At depth " + friendPath.length() + " => "
              + friendPath.endNode()
                      .getProperty( "name" ) + "\n";
    numberOfFriends++;
}
output += "Number of friends found: " + numberOfFriends + "\n";

Which will give you the following output:

Thomas Anderson's friends:
At depth 1 => Morpheus
At depth 1 => Trinity
At depth 2 => Cypher
At depth 3 => Agent Smith
Number of friends found: 4

Who coded the Matrix?

private Traverser findHackers( Transaction transaction, final Node startNode )
{
    TraversalDescription td = transaction.traversalDescription()
            .breadthFirst()
            .relationships( RelTypes.CODED_BY, Direction.OUTGOING )
            .relationships( RelTypes.KNOWS, Direction.OUTGOING )
            .evaluator(
                    Evaluators.includeWhereLastRelationshipTypeIs( RelTypes.CODED_BY ) );
    return td.traverse( startNode );
}

Print out the result:

String output = "Hackers:\n";
int numberOfHackers = 0;
Traverser traverser = findHackers( tx, getNeoNode( tx ) );
for ( Path hackerPath : traverser )
{
    output += "At depth " + hackerPath.length() + " => "
              + hackerPath.endNode()
                      .getProperty( "name" ) + "\n";
    numberOfHackers++;
}
output += "Number of hackers found: " + numberOfHackers + "\n";

Now you know who coded the Matrix:

Hackers:
At depth 4 => The Architect
Number of hackers found: 1

1.1. Walking an ordered path

This example shows how to use a path context holding a representation of a path.

The source code of this example is found here: OrderedPath.java

Create a toy graph:

Node A = tx.createNode();
Node B = tx.createNode();
Node C = tx.createNode();
Node D = tx.createNode();

A.createRelationshipTo( C, REL2 );
C.createRelationshipTo( D, REL3 );
A.createRelationshipTo( B, REL1 );
B.createRelationshipTo( C, REL2 );
Diagram

Now, the order of relationships (REL1 → REL2 → REL3) is stored in an ArrayList. Upon traversal, the Evaluator can check against it to ensure that only paths are included and returned that have the predefined order of relationships:

final ArrayList<RelationshipType> orderedPathContext = new ArrayList<>();
orderedPathContext.add( REL1 );
orderedPathContext.add( withName( "REL2" ) );
orderedPathContext.add( withName( "REL3" ) );
TraversalDescription td = tx.traversalDescription()
        .evaluator( new Evaluator()
        {
            @Override
            public Evaluation evaluate( final Path path )
            {
                if ( path.length() == 0 )
                {
                    return Evaluation.EXCLUDE_AND_CONTINUE;
                }
                RelationshipType expectedType = orderedPathContext.get( path.length() - 1 );
                boolean isExpectedType = path.lastRelationship()
                        .isType( expectedType );
                boolean included = path.length() == orderedPathContext.size() && isExpectedType;
                boolean continued = path.length() < orderedPathContext.size() && isExpectedType;
                return Evaluation.of( included, continued );
            }
        } )
        .uniqueness( Uniqueness.NODE_PATH );

Note that we set the uniqueness to Uniqueness.NODE_PATH as you want to be able to revisit the same node during the traversal, but not the same path.

Perform the traversal and print the result:

Traverser traverser = td.traverse( tx.getNodeById( A.getId() ) );
PathPrinter pathPrinter = new PathPrinter( "name" );
for ( Path path : traverser )
{
    output += Paths.pathToString( path, pathPrinter );
}

Which will output:

(A)--[REL1]-->(B)--[REL2]-->(C)--[REL3]-->(D)

In this case, a custom class is used to format the path output. This is how it is done:

static class PathPrinter implements Paths.PathDescriptor<Path>
{
    private final String nodePropertyKey;

    public PathPrinter( String nodePropertyKey )
    {
        this.nodePropertyKey = nodePropertyKey;
    }

    @Override
    public String nodeRepresentation( Path path, Node node )
    {
        return "(" + node.getProperty( nodePropertyKey, "" ) + ")";
    }

    @Override
    public String relationshipRepresentation( Path path, Node from, Relationship relationship )
    {
        String prefix = "--", suffix = "--";
        if ( from.equals( relationship.getEndNode() ) )
        {
            prefix = "<--";
        }
        else
        {
            suffix = "-->";
        }
        return prefix + "[" + relationship.getType().name() + "]" + suffix;
    }
}