# Can we merge multiple Nodes based on Single common property **URL:** \ **Category:** Browser\ **Tags:** cypher\ **Created:** [November 22, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181 "2018-11-22T05:08:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/1 "2018-11-22T05:08:59Z")
Hi All, I am relatively new to neo4j and I am working on 1 Use case where we are trying to merge all nodes(with 1 common property, such as all nodes with year= "1995") into 1 node where all the relationships are heading towards it rather than 3 different nodes. For example:- I have 3 csv files with below type of data. Actor.csv:- | Actor Id | Name | | --- | --- | | 1 | Sam | Movie.csv:- | Movie Id | Movie Name | Year | Actor Id | Director Id | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 45 | Avengers | 2016 | 1 | 10 | | 23 | Movie 2 | 2016 | 1 | 10 | | 12 | Movie 3 | 2016 | 1 | 10 | Director.csv:- | Director ID | Director Name | | --- | --- | | 10 | Danny Morgan | Now if I use the following Cypher Query:- > Match (actor:Actor)-[:ACTED\_IN]-\>(movie:Movie)\<-[:DIRECTED\_BY]-(director:Director) > return actor, movie, director Now the graph that appears have 1 node of actor and 3 nodes of movie then 1 node of director. all connected via relationships. I want there to be only 1 node of movie displaying **"2016"** as year and 3 edges/relationships going out of actor to the movie node and 3 edges/relationships merging as 1 into Director node or 1 single relationship of **"ACTED\_IN"** going towards movie but a number **"3"** (suggesting there are 3 relationships for that year) written over it The main goal is to show that there are 3 realtionships related to the year 2016. I know we can perform aggregations to return tables with count or arrays of data. But can we do it in graph nodes as well. NOTE:-I am using Neo4j Browser version 3.1.4 Thank you for reading I hope it's not a silly question. ---
**Author:** ![mike\_r\_black](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/mike_r_black/32/30089_2.png) [@mike\_r\_black](https://community.neo4j.com/u/mike_r_black)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 5:25am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/2 "2018-11-22T05:25:21Z")
Check out the [APOC Merge Nodes](https://neo4j-contrib.github.io/neo4j-apoc-procedures/#_merge_nodes) ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 10:54am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/3 "2018-11-22T10:54:38Z")
HI Mike. Thanks for the reply. I followed exact same steps mentioned. I created 2 nodes: Here "Foo" have 202 as id and "Bar" have 203 as id. `CREATE (f:Sample {name:'Foo'}), (b:Sample {surname:'Bar'}) RETURN f,b` Then i run the following CYPHER command:- ```auto MATCH (f:Sample {name:'Foo'}), (b:Sample {surname:'Bar'}) CALL apoc.refactor.mergeNodes([f,b]) YIELD node RETURN node ``` I get the following error but i do not understand why am i getting it and what to make of it. > Neo.ClientError.Statement.EntityNotFound: Node with id 203 has been deleted in this transaction ---
**Author:** ![12kunal34](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/12kunal34/32/2617_2.png) [@12kunal34](https://community.neo4j.com/u/12kunal34)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 11:19am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/4 "2018-11-22T11:19:04Z")
Hey, please try once below query ```auto MATCH (f:Sample {name:'Foo'}),(b:Sample {surname:'Bar'}) WITH * LIMIT 1 call apoc.refactor.mergeNodes([f,b]) yield node return "none" ``` ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 1:06pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/5 "2018-11-22T13:06:51Z")
It did nothing. Just showed this: | none | | --- | | "none" | Nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![12kunal34](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/12kunal34/32/2617_2.png) [@12kunal34](https://community.neo4j.com/u/12kunal34)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/6 "2018-11-22T14:23:23Z")
Now search for the node . It must present in your database. If it executed well that means merging is complete ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 4:59am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/7 "2018-11-23T04:59:55Z")
wow. It worked. Thanks. Can you plz tell why it did not work in previous case. And what did we do differently or the analogy of your solution. ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 5:32am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/8 "2018-11-23T05:32:05Z")
Hi Again, It worked fine when we have to merge 2 nodes of same `Label` but with different `Properties`. Like properties `Name` and `Surname` under common label ` **Sample** ` in above comments. But in my case where properties are common. For Example:- Label ABC have 40 nodes with following properties. ```auto { sid:1 to 40 //Unique for all 40 nodes counterparty: "Harley Davidson" //same for all 40 nodes. clientName:"Indian Motors" //Also same for all 40 nodes } ``` I used this:- ```auto MATCH (f:ABC{counterparty:'Harley Davidson'}),(b:ABC{counterparty:'Harley Davidson'}) WITH * LIMIT 1 call apoc.refactor.mergeNodes([f,b]) yield node return "none" ``` I tried to merge 40 nodes with 1 property as common among all. It executed fine displaying none as output just like previously. But still I see there are 40 nodes under ABC instead of 1. ---
**Author:** ![michael.hunger](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/michael.hunger/32/27377_2.png) [@michael.hunger](https://community.neo4j.com/u/michael.hunger)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 6:28am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/10 "2018-11-23T06:28:19Z")
Which version do you use? ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 6:38am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/11 "2018-11-23T06:38:38Z")
I am using Neo4j Browser version 3.2.10 Neo4j Server Version 3.4.9(community) APOC :- apoc-3.4.0.3-all.jar ---
**Author:** ![michael.hunger](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/michael.hunger/32/27377_2.png) [@michael.hunger](https://community.neo4j.com/u/michael.hunger)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 6:52am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/12 "2018-11-23T06:52:41Z")
It doesn't work like that (pairwise merges) as it would do random pairs and then randomly try to merge them where half of them are already gone. ```auto MATCH (f:ABC) WITH f.counterparty as counterparty, f.clientName as clientName, collect(f) as nodes WHERE size(nodes) > 1 call apoc.refactor.mergeNodes(nodes) yield node return count(*) ``` ---
**Author:** ![groverjatin17](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/groverjatin17/32/2174_2.png) [@groverjatin17](https://community.neo4j.com/u/groverjatin17)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 7:06am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/13 "2018-11-23T07:06:25Z")
Great Sir. It worked. Tons of thanks. I need to deep dive rather than just learning match, create and where clauses of Neo4j. Only if my manager give me time to learn..lol Again, Thanks everybody for their input 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elena](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/elena/32/13074_2.png) [@elena](https://community.neo4j.com/u/elena)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/can-we-merge-multiple-nodes-based-on-single-common-property/3181/14 "2020-03-04T18:58:58Z")
Updated docs links: [http://neo4j-contrib.github.io/neo4j-apoc-procedures/3.5/graph-refactoring/merge-nodes/](http://neo4j-contrib.github.io/neo4j-apoc-procedures/3.5/graph-refactoring/merge-nodes/) [https://neo4j.com/docs/labs/apoc/current/graph-updates/graph-refactoring/merge-nodes/](https://neo4j.com/docs/labs/apoc/current/graph-updates/graph-refactoring/merge-nodes/)