Id vs elementid transactions question

Neo4j Graph Platform Cypher
1

Hi! So one recent change is that id() is depreciated in favor of elementid() as of version 5.

But I often want to solve the problem of connecting an arbitrary node to another node

def attach_user_to_node(email_address, node, label = "PARENT"):
    with driver.session() as session:
        query = """
        MATCH (n) WHERE id(n) = $node_id
        WITH n
        MERGE (u:User {email_address: $email_address})
        MERGE (u)-[:%s]->(n) 
        RETURN u
        """%label

For example, with this kind of code.

You might think: Well just replace that with elementId() so they are known unique to the DB, but this in theory won't work because elementId() is unique to each transaction according to the documentation! (In practice - it works, but I fear it will fail silently!)

As far as I can tell I run all my code in different transactions using the Python driver?

What's the right way to do this?

Keep in mind, the type of the node is not specified and I'm guaranteed it won't get deleted in the middle (which was why I used id() in the first place).

Thanks in advance!

2

@daveaitel

this 'unique to each transaction' is even detailed in Neo4j 3.5 and for id() Scalar functions - Cypher Manual

so although perhaps it may give you pause its no different than id()

3

Ah, I assume this is because in theory the next transaction can delete a node. So if you don't delete nodes, you should be ok? :)

Also, FWIW, I think the GDS documentation still says to use id(n):

I don't know if it even works with elementId() yet?

4

@daveaitel
also id() and w v5 is currently deprecrated. ie.. available today but to be phased out

5

At the risk of being tangential...
Ah, but it is different, as per the documentation. id() returns an integer, and elementId() returns a string. So if you have a dependency on the type of the returned list, then you may have an issue. Replacing id() with elementId() in Bloom broke my Scene Actions, as $nodes is still a list of integers. And the integers do not obviously map to the strings returned by elementId().
Cheers
Paul