Deleting graph elements — nodes and relationships, is done with DELETE.
For removing properties and labels, see Section 11.6, “Remove”.
The examples start out with the following database:
To delete a node, use the DELETE clause.
Query.
MATCH (n:Useless) DELETE n
Nothing is returned from this query, except the count of affected nodes.
If you are trying to delete a node with relationships on it, you have to delete these as well.
Query.
MATCH (n { name: 'Andres' })-[r]-()
DELETE n, r
Nothing is returned from this query, except the count of affected nodes.
This query isn’t for deleting large amounts of data, but is nice when playing around with small example data sets.
Query.
MATCH (n) OPTIONAL MATCH (n)-[r]-() DELETE n,r
Nothing is returned from this query, except the count of affected nodes.