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LIMIT AND SKIP

The LIMIT clause constrains the number of rows in the output.

  • Native nGQL: A pipe | must be used. And an offset can be ignored.
  • OpenCypher style: No pipes are permitted. And you can use SKIP to indicate an offset.

Note

When using LIMIT in either syntax above, it is important to use an ORDER BY clause that constrains the output into a unique order. Otherwise, you will get an unpredictable subset of the output.

Native nGQL syntax

In native nGQL, LIMIT works the same as in SQL, and must be used with pipe |. The LIMIT clause accepts one or two parameters. The values of both arguments must be non-negative integers.

YIELD <var>
[| LIMIT [<offset_value>,] <number_rows>];
Parameter Description
var The columns or calculations that you wish to sort.
offset_value The offset value. It defines from which row to start returning. The offset starts from 0. The default value is 0, which returns from the first row.
number_rows It constrains the total number of returned rows.

Examples

# The following example returns the 3 rows of data starting from the second row of the sorted output.
nebula> GO FROM "player100" OVER follow REVERSELY \
        YIELD $$.player.name AS Friend, $$.player.age AS Age \
        | ORDER BY $-.Age, $-.Friend \
        | LIMIT 1, 3;
+-------------------+-----+
| Friend            | Age |
+-------------------+-----+
| "Danny Green"     | 31  |
+-------------------+-----+
| "Aron Baynes"     | 32  |
+-------------------+-----+
| "Marco Belinelli" | 32  |
+-------------------+-----+

OpenCypher syntax

RETURN <var>
[SKIP <offset>]
[LIMIT <number_rows>];
Parameter Description
var The columns or calculations that you wish to sort.
offset The offset value. It defines from which row to start returning. The offset starts from 0. The default value is 0, which returns from the first row.
number_rows It constrains the total number of returned rows.

Both offset and number_rows accept expressions, but the result of the expression must be a non-negative integer.

Note

Fraction expressions composed of two integers are automatically floored to integers. For example, 8/6 is floored to 1.

Examples

nebula> MATCH (v:player) RETURN v.name AS Name, v.age AS Age \
        ORDER BY Age LIMIT 5;
+-------------------------+-----+
| Name                    | Age |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Luka Doncic"           | 20  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Ben Simmons"           | 22  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Kristaps Porzingis"    | 23  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Giannis Antetokounmpo" | 24  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Kyle Anderson"         | 25  |
+-------------------------+-----+

nebula> MATCH (v:player) RETURN v.name AS Name, v.age AS Age \
        ORDER BY Age LIMIT rand32(5);
+-------------------------+-----+
| Name                    | Age |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Luka Doncic"           | 20  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Ben Simmons"           | 22  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Kristaps Porzingis"    | 23  |
+-------------------------+-----+
| "Giannis Antetokounmpo" | 24  |
+-------------------------+-----+

Examples of SKIP

You can use SKIP <offset> to skip the top N rows of the output and return the rest of the output. So, there is no need to add LIMIT <number_rows>.

nebula> MATCH (v:player{name:"Tim Duncan"}) --> (v2) \
        RETURN v2.name AS Name, v2.age AS Age \
        ORDER BY Age DESC SKIP 1;
+-----------------+-----+
| Name            | Age |
+-----------------+-----+
| "Manu Ginobili" | 41  |
+-----------------+-----+
| "Tony Parker"   | 36  |
+-----------------+-----+

nebula> MATCH (v:player{name:"Tim Duncan"}) --> (v2) \
        RETURN v2.name AS Name, v2.age AS Age \
        ORDER BY Age DESC SKIP 1+1;
+---------------+-----+
| Name          | Age |
+---------------+-----+
| "Tony Parker" | 36  |
+---------------+-----+

You can use SKIP <offset> and LIMIT <number_rows> together to return the data of the middle N rows.

nebula> MATCH (v:player{name:"Tim Duncan"}) --> (v2) \
        RETURN v2.name AS Name, v2.age AS Age \
        ORDER BY Age DESC SKIP 1 LIMIT 1;
+-----------------+-----+
| Name            | Age |
+-----------------+-----+
| "Manu Ginobili" | 41  |
+-----------------+-----+
Last update: August 30, 2021
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