WHERE

The WHERE clause is optional and is used to filter results based on predicates (conditions).

Supported Comparison Operators

Operator	Description
=	Equal to
<>	Not equal to
<	Less than
<=	Less than or equal to
>	Greater than
>=	Greater than or equal to
CONTAINS	String contains substring
ENDS WITH	String ends with substring
IN	Value is in list
STARTS WITH	String starts with substring

Combining Predicates

Predicates can be combined using the logical operators AND, OR, and NOT.

Use parentheses to control precedence when combining multiple predicates.

Examples:

WHERE (actor.name = "john doe" OR movie.rating > 8.8) AND movie.votes <= 250

WHERE actor.age >= director.age AND actor.age > 32

Inline Property Filters

You can specify equality predicates directly within node patterns using curly braces:

(:President {name:"Jed Bartlett"})-[:WON]->(:State)

This requires that the president node’s name property equals “Jed Bartlett”.

Inline predicates are functionally equivalent to predicates specified in the WHERE clause.

Pattern Predicates

You can also filter based on graph patterns. These two queries are equivalent and both return presidents and the states they won:

MATCH (p:President), (s:State) WHERE (p)-[:WON]->(s) RETURN p, s

MATCH (p:President)-[:WON]->(s:State) RETURN p, s

Pattern predicates can be negated and combined with logical operators. This query returns presidents who did not win in states where they were governors:

MATCH (p:President), (s:State) WHERE NOT (p)-[:WON]->(s) AND (p)-[:GOVERNOR]->(s) RETURN p, s

Label Filtering

Nodes can be filtered by label in the WHERE clause:

MATCH (n)-[:R]->() WHERE n:L1 OR n:L2 RETURN n 

Best Practice: When possible, specify labels directly in the node pattern of the MATCH clause for better performance.

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What comparison operators does WHERE support?

FalkorDB supports =, <>, <, <=, >, >=, plus string operators CONTAINS, STARTS WITH, ENDS WITH, and the list operator IN.

Can I combine multiple conditions in WHERE?

Yes. Use AND, OR, and NOT logical operators to combine predicates. Parentheses control evaluation precedence.

What are inline property filters?

Inline filters use curly braces within node patterns, e.g. (n:Person {name: 'Alice'}). They are functionally equivalent to a WHERE clause equality check but offer more concise syntax.

Do WHERE predicates benefit from indexes?

Yes. When a WHERE clause filters on a property that has a range index, FalkorDB automatically uses an index scan instead of a full label scan. Use GRAPH.EXPLAIN to verify index usage.

Can I filter by graph patterns in WHERE?

Yes. Pattern predicates like WHERE (a)-[:KNOWS]->(b) or negated patterns WHERE NOT (a)-[:KNOWS]->(b) can be used directly in the WHERE clause.