Overview

The insert().overwrite() statement allows for (1) the overwriting of existing nodes and edges, or (2) the insertion of new nodes and edges to a single schema in a graphset.

// Overwrites or inserts nodes
insert().overwrite().into(@<schema>).nodes([
  {<property1?>: <value1?>, <property2?>: <value2?>, ...},
  {<property1?>: <value1?>, <property2?>: <value2?>, ...},
  ...
])

// Overwrites or inserts edges
insert().overwrite().into(@<schema>).edges([
  {_from: <fromValue>, _to: <toValue>, <property1?>: <value1?>, <property2?>: <value2?>, ...},
  {_from: <fromValue>, _to: <toValue>, <property1?>: <value1?>, <property2?>: <value2?>, ...},
  ...
])

Overwriting

Node overwriting occurs when an existing _id value is provided in the property specification. Edge overwriting occurs when an existing EDGE KEY constraint value is specified along with the corresponding _from and _to values.

When a node or edge is overwritten:

• Provided custom property values replace existing ones.
• Missing custom properties are removed and set to null.
• System properties remain unchanged.

Insertion

A new node is inserted when a new _id value is provided or when it is missing. A new edge is inserted when no overwriting (as described above) takes place. Note that edge properties _from and _to must be provided to specify the source and destination nodes of the edge.

When a node or edge is inserted:

• Provided properties are assigned the given values.
• Missing custom properties default to null.
• Node _id is generated by the system if not provided. Node or edge _uuid is always generated by the system and cannot be manually assigned.

Example Graph

To create the graph, execute each of the following UQL queries sequentially in an empty graphset:

create().node_schema("user").edge_schema("follow")
create().node_property(@user, "name").node_property(@user, "age", int32).edge_property(@*, "time", datetime).edge_property(@*, "weight", int32).edge_property(@*, "flag")
insert().into(@user).nodes([{_id:"U001", name:"Jason", age:30}, {_id:"U002", name:"Tim"}, {_id:"U003", name:"Grace", age:25}, {_id:"U004", name:"Ted", age:26}])
insert().into(@follow).edges([{_from:"U004", _to:"U001", time:"2021-9-10", weight:2, flag: "green"}, {_from:"U003", _to:"U001", time:"2020-3-12", weight:1, flag: "green"}, {_from:"U004", _to:"U002", time:"2023-7-30", weight:3, flag: "red"}])

Overwriting or Inserting Nodes

To overwrite or insert nodes into @user:

insert().overwrite().into(@user).nodes([
  {_id: "U001", name: "John"},
  {_id: "U005", name: "Alice"},
  {age: 12}
]) as n
return n{*}

• First node: The provided _id U001 already exists in the graph, so the corresponding node is overwritten.
• Second node: The provided _id U005 is new, so a new node is inserted.
• Third node: _id is not provided, so a new node is inserted.

Result: n

Overwriting or Inserting Edges

No EDGE KEY Constraint

When there is no EDGE KEY constraint defined, this query throws an error:

insert().overwrite().into(@follow).edges([
  {_from: "U004", _to: "U001", time: "2021-9-10"},
  {_from: "U001", _to: "U004", time: "2021-10-3", weight: 2}
])

Single-Property EDGE KEY Constraint

To create a single-property EDGE KEY constraint on the edge property time:

CREATE CONSTRAINT key_time
FOR ()-[e]-() REQUIRE e.time IS EDGE KEY
OPTIONS {
  type: {time: "datetime"}
}

To overwrite or insert edges into @follow:

insert().overwrite().into(@follow).edges([
  {_from: "U004", _to: "U001", time: "2021-9-10"},
  {_from: "U001", _to: "U004", time: "2021-10-3", weight: 2}
]) as e
return e{*}

• First edge: The provided EDGE KEY constraint (time) with the value 2021-9-10 already exists in the graph, and both _from and _to match, so the corresponding edge is overwritten.
• Second edge: The provided EDGE KEY constraint (time) with the value 2021-10-3 is new, so a new edge is inserted.

Result: e

Composite EDGE KEY Constraint

To create a composite EDGE KEY constraint on the edge properties time and weight:

CREATE CONSTRAINT key_time_weight
FOR ()-[e]-() REQUIRE (e.time, e.weight) IS EDGE KEY
OPTIONS {
  type: {time: "datetime", weight: "int32"}
}

To overwrite or insert edges into @follow:

insert().overwrite().into(@follow).edges([
  {_from: "U004", _to: "U001", time: "2021-9-10", weight: 2},
  {_from: "U003", _to: "U001", time: "2020-3-12", weight: 2},
  {_from: "U001", _to: "U004", time: "2021-10-3", weight: 1, flag: "green"}
]) as e
return e{*}

• First edge: The provided EDGE KEY constraint (time, weight) with the combined value (2021-9-10, 2) already exists in the graph, and both _from and _to match, so the corresponding edge is overwritten.
• Second edge: The provided EDGE KEY constraint (time, weight) with the combined value (2020-3-12, 2) is new, so a new edge is inserted.
• Third edge: The provided EDGE KEY constraint (time, weight) with the combined value (2021-10-3, 1) is new, so a new edge is inserted.

Result: e