# Export a (sub)graph to Cypher script and import it again

**URL:** <https://community.neo4j.com/t/export-a-sub-graph-to-cypher-script-and-import-it-again/59468>\
**Category:** Neo4j Graph Platform\
**Tags:** migrated\
**Created:** [August 23, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/export-a-sub-graph-to-cypher-script-and-import-it-again/59468 "2018-08-23T02:27:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**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:** [August 23, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/export-a-sub-graph-to-cypher-script-and-import-it-again/59468/1 "2018-08-23T02:27:18Z")

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Oftentimes you want to export a full (or partial) database to a file and import it again without copying the actual database files.  
If you want to do the latter, use `neo4j-admin dump/load`.

Here are two ways on how to create a Cypher script file from your database or Cypher statement.

## Format

Some notes on the format written from these tools:

- recreate indexes and constraints
- simple statements per node (CREATE) / relationship (2x MATCH + CREATE)
- data creation in batches (by default 40k) surrounded with `begin`, `commit`
- uses existing constraints for node-lookup
- if no constraint on that label exist, use an artificial constraint + property (`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`) where the property value is the node-id, on node creation
- clean up artificial label + property + constraint at the end in batches

## APOC

You can install the [APOC](https://github.com/neo4j-contrib/neo4j-apoc-procedures) procedure library.

And then use the `apoc.export.cypher.*` procedures to create the `export.cypher` file from your graph or data.  
There is more in the [documentation](https://neo4j-contrib.github.io/neo4j-apoc-procedures/#_export_to_cypher_script) but below are some examples.

NOTE: Please note that you have to enable the capability to write to files first in `neo4j.conf`.

`apoc.export.file.enabled=true`

```auto
<!-- // exports the whole database incl. indexes as cypher statements to the provided file -->
CALL apoc.export.cypher.all("export.cypher",{})

<!-- // exports given nodes and relationships incl. indexes as cypher statements to the provided file -->
MATCH path = (p1:Person)-[r:KNOWS]->(p:Person)
WITH collect(p1)+collect(p2) as export_nodes, collect(r) as export_rels
CALL apoc.export.cypher.data(export_nodes,export_rels,"export.cypher",{}) 
YIELD file, source, format, nodes, relationships, properties, time
RETURN nodes, relationships, time;

<!-- // exports given graph object incl. indexes as cypher statements to the provided file -->
#### ..
CALL apoc.graph.fromPaths([paths],'export_graph',{}) YIELD graph
CALL apoc.export.cypher.graph(graph,"export.cypher",{}) YIELD time
RETURN time;

<!-- // exports nodes and relationships from the cypher statement incl. indexes as cypher statements to the provided file -->
CALL apoc.export.cypher.query(
"MATCH (p1:Person)-[r:KNOWS]->(p:Person) RETURN *","export.cypher",{});

```

## neo4j-shell tools

Install [neo4j-shell-tools](https://github.com/jexp/neo4j-shell-tools) into your `lib` directory.  
Enable remote shell in your `neo4j.conf` with `dbms.shell.enabled=true`.

Or use `./bin/neo4j-shell -path data/databases/graph.db` when your server is not running.

Run the command `export-cypher -o export.cypher;`

or

`export-cypher -o export.cypher MATCH (p1:Person)-[r:KNOWS]->(p:Person) RETURN *;`

## Import with cypher-shell

If you edit the file to replace `begin` with `:begin` and `commit` with `:commit`,  
then you can import them with [`cypher-shell`](https://neo4j.com/docs/operations-manual/current/tools/cypher-shell/) too.

`export.cypher | sed -e 's/^(begin|commit)/:$1/g' ./bin/cypher-shell -u user -p password`

## Import with neo4j-shell

You can import files generated by these exports with

`./bin/neo4j-shell -file export.cypher`

## Example for export file

#### $ export-cypher -r -o test.cypher match (n)-[r]-\>() return n,r

```auto
<!-- // create nodes -->
begin
CREATE (:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL` {`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`:0});
CREATE (:`User` {`age`:43, `name`:"User1"});
commit

<!-- // add schema -->
begin
CREATE INDEX ON :`User`(`age`);
CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (node:`User`) ASSERT node.`name` IS UNIQUE;
CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (node:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) ASSERT node.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID` IS UNIQUE;
commit
schema await

<!-- // create relationships -->
begin
MATCH (n1:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`{`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`:0}), (n2:`User`{`name`:"User1"}) CREATE (n1)-[:`KNOWS` {`since`:2011}]->(n2);
commit

<!-- // clean up temporary import keys -->
begin
MATCH (n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) WITH n LIMIT 1000 REMOVE n:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL` REMOVE n.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID`;
commit
begin
DROP CONSTRAINT ON (node:`UNIQUE IMPORT LABEL`) ASSERT node.`UNIQUE IMPORT ID` IS UNIQUE;
commit

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zzzzzora\_wuw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/5daacb/32.png) [@zzzzzora\_wuw](https://community.neo4j.com/u/zzzzzora_wuw)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2022, 3:13am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/export-a-sub-graph-to-cypher-script-and-import-it-again/59468/2 "2022-09-09T03:13:01Z")

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For the export cypher to not using \_id for nodes and relationships matching, does that work if I create a unique node property constraint? (e.g. we have a property in nodes to identify them) Or does it have to be a node key constraint?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [February 9, 2023, 10:36am UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/export-a-sub-graph-to-cypher-script-and-import-it-again/59468/3 "2023-02-09T10:36:35Z")

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Yes, `apoc.export.cypher.*` will take existing constraints into account and prefer these over node-ids, only if there is no constraint, it will use the node-id as `neo4jImportId`.  
Same for the other export procedures.

> **[Export - APOC Documentation](https://neo4j.com/docs/apoc/current/export/)**
>
> This chapter describes procedures in the APOC library that can be used to export data from Neo4j.