FalkorDB

Querying Overview

Qarbine interacts with FalkorDB using the Cypher querying language. There are many querying tutorials available and a good starting point is courtesy of Neo4j at https://neo4j.com/docs/getting-started/appendix/tutorials/tutorials-overview/.

The table below provides links to various query related topics.

Topic	Web Site Links
Query	https://docs.falkordb.com/cypher/https://docs.falkordb.com/cypher/cypher_support.html
Path Algorithms	https://docs.falkordb.com/path_algorithm.html
Data Types	https://docs.falkordb.com/datatypes.html

There are examples in FalkorDB components in the catalog folder with the path shown below.

  

  

Query Specification

The primary query specification syntax is Cypher. There are a few exceptions noted in the section below regarding Qarbine virtual queries. Cypher provides a visual way of matching patterns and relationships by having its own design based on ASCII-art type of syntax:

(:nodes)-[:ARE_CONNECTED_TO]->(:otherNodes)

Round brackets are used to represent (:Nodes), and -[:ARROWS]→ to represent a relationship between the (:Nodes). With this query syntax, you can perform read operations on your graph.

Some of the material below is a subset from https://neo4j.com/docs/getting-started/cypher/

A graph database consists mainly of nodes and relationships. Nodes are often used to represent nouns or objects in your data model. In Cypher, you can depict a node by surrounding it with parentheses, e.g. (node).

In Cypher, relationships are represented as square brackets and an arrow connecting two nodes (e.g. (Node1)-[ ]→(Node2)). Relationships always have a direction which is indicated by an arrow.

They can go from left to right:

(p:Person)-[:LIKES]->(t:Technology)

From right to left:

(p:Person)<-[:LIKES]-(t:Technology)

Or be undirected (where the direction is not specified):

MATCH (p:Person)-[:LIKES]-(t:Technology)

Some Qarbine examples make use of Cypher variables which are different from Qarbine variables in this context. They are similar to SQL aliases in usage. Here is a query without a variable

MATCH (:Person)
RETURN Person

Here is one using a variable

MATCH (p:Person)
RETURN p

Vector Query Prerequisites

For vector related queries, prior to using Qarbine’s embeddings(...) macro function or the SQL-like query function nearText(...), the Qarbine Administrator must first configure “AI Assistant(s)”. The AI Assistants provide access to various popular Generative AI services and are referenced using an alias. Check with your Qarbine administrator for which ones are available and their proper use. For example, when using dynamic query vector embeddings, the model used by the AI Assistant must be compatible with the one used to generate the original embedding values in the database.

Qarbine Pragmas

Overview

Qarbine provides “pragma” for manipulating query results. The general “Data Source Designer” provides details on the ones which are independent of the particular database itself.

doNotPullFieldsUp

For a query like

MATCH (n:Team)

RETURN n

FalkorDB returns answer set elements like

{

    "n": {
      "id": 13,
      "labels": [
        "Team"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "name": "Ducati"
      }
    }
  }

The default behavior is to have Qarbine return an easier to interact with object of the form

{

      "id": 13,
      "labels": [
        "Team"
      ],
      "name": "Ducati"
    }
  }

The ‘n’ fields are pulled up a level and the properties fields are then pulled up a level as well. This provides a simpler final element object to interact with.

To turn this default answer set processing off use

#pragma doNotPullUpFields

See the details on using Qarbine pragmas in the Data Source Designer guide.

Troubleshooting

No Response

If there is no response then have the Qarbine or FalkorDB administrator check the operating status of the target FalkorDB database. It may be

  

in which case it needs to be started.

Here is a potential error message

FalkorDb 1.0 connectToServerForDataService getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND r-abcdefghij.us-east1.gcp.1234567.cloud

Qarbine Virtual Queries

As noted above, the primary query specification syntax is Cypher. There are a few exceptions to interacting with the database which are mainly DBA oriented. These queries are recognized by the Qarbine FalkorDB driver and perform common database retrievals.

Query	Description
list databases	Return a list of graphs and their current status.
list labels	Return a list of FalkorDB labels.
describe labels	Provide details on all of the labels. This may take a while depending on your database structure.
describe label LABEL	Provide details on the given label.

See the “DBA Productivity” section of the online documentation for more details.