Cypher Operators

Precedence

Operators are listed from highest to lowest precedence. Operators at the same level associate left-to-right unless noted.

Level	Operator(s)	Associativity
1 (highest)	`.` (property access), `[` (subscript/slice)	Left
2	Unary `-` (negation), `NOT`	Right
3	`*`, `/`, `%`	Left
4	`+`, `-`	Left
5	`=`, `<>`, `<`, `>`, `<=`, `>=`	Left
6	`IS NULL`, `IS NOT NULL`	—
7	`STARTS WITH`, `ENDS WITH`, `CONTAINS`, `=~`, `IN`	Left
8	`AND`	Left
9	`XOR`	Left
10 (lowest)	`OR`	Left

Use parentheses to override precedence.

Arithmetic Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description	Example	Result
Addition	`a + b`	Numeric addition; string concatenation	`2 + 3`	`5`
Subtraction	`a - b`	Numeric subtraction	`10 - 4`	`6`
Multiplication	`a * b`	Numeric multiplication	`3 * 4`	`12`
Division	`a / b`	Numeric division; integer inputs yield float	`7 / 2`	`3.5`
Modulo	`a % b`	Remainder	`10 % 3`	`1`
Unary negation	`-a`	Negate a number	`-n.age`	negated

Type behavior

Integer + Integer → Integer
Integer + Float → Float
String + String → String concatenation
Any arithmetic with null → null

Comparison Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description
Equals	`a = b`	Value equality
Not equals	`a <> b`	Value inequality
Less than	`a < b`
Greater than	`a > b`
Less or equal	`a <= b`
Greater or equal	`a >= b`

Type behavior

Comparing null with any operator returns null (not true or false).
Comparisons between incompatible types return null.
Strings compare lexicographically.

Examples

WHERE n.age >= 18
WHERE n.name <> 'Alice'
WHERE n.score = 100

Boolean Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description
AND	`a AND b`	`true` if both operands are `true`
OR	`a OR b`	`true` if at least one operand is `true`
NOT	`NOT a`	Logical negation
XOR	`a XOR b`	`true` if exactly one operand is `true`

Three-valued logic (null behavior)

a	b	a AND b	a OR b
true	null	null	true
false	null	false	null
null	null	null	null

NOT null → null

Examples

WHERE n.age > 18 AND n.active = true
WHERE n.role = 'admin' OR n.role = 'mod'
WHERE NOT n.deleted
WHERE (n.a = 1) XOR (n.b = 1)

String Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description	Example
Starts with	`s STARTS WITH prefix`	Prefix match	`n.name STARTS WITH 'Al'`
Ends with	`s ENDS WITH suffix`	Suffix match	`n.email ENDS WITH '.com'`
Contains	`s CONTAINS sub`	Substring search	`n.bio CONTAINS 'engineer'`
Regex match	`s =~ pattern`	PCRE regex; full-string match	`n.name =~ 'Al.*'`
Concatenation	`s1 + s2`	Join two strings	`n.first + ' ' + n.last`

All string operators are case-sensitive. =~ uses PCRE syntax via the regexp() SQL function registered by the extension.

Examples

WHERE n.name STARTS WITH 'A'
WHERE n.email ENDS WITH '.org'
WHERE n.bio CONTAINS 'graph'
WHERE n.code =~ '[A-Z]{3}[0-9]+'

List Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description	Example
Membership	`x IN list`	`true` if `x` is an element of `list`	`n.role IN ['admin', 'mod']`
Concatenation	`list1 + list2`	Combine two lists	`[1,2] + [3,4]` → `[1,2,3,4]`
Index access	`list[index]`	Element at 0-based index; negative index counts from end	`list[0]`, `list[-1]`
Slice	`list[start..end]`	Sublist from `start` (inclusive) to `end` (exclusive)	`list[1..3]`

Examples

WHERE n.status IN ['active', 'pending']
RETURN [1, 2] + [3, 4]       -- [1, 2, 3, 4]
RETURN [10, 20, 30][1]       -- 20
RETURN [10, 20, 30, 40][1..3] -- [20, 30]

Null Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description
Is null	`expr IS NULL`	`true` if expression is `null`
Is not null	`expr IS NOT NULL`	`true` if expression is not `null`

Examples

WHERE n.email IS NOT NULL
WHERE n.deletedAt IS NULL

Property Access Operators

Operator	Syntax	Description
Dot notation	`entity.property`	Access a property by name
String subscript	`entity['property']`	Access a property by string key
Nested dot	`n.a.b`	Access nested JSON field (requires `a` to be a JSON-type property)

String-key subscript (n['key']) is normalized at transform time to the same SQL as dot notation. Both forms are equivalent.

Examples

RETURN n.name
RETURN n['name']
RETURN n.address.city     -- requires address stored as JSON

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