Photo credit A major upgrade to Spring Data Neo4j was released at the end of last year as part of the Spring Data release train. If you were involved in Spring Data and Neo4j news before that, you may have seen hints of this coming with the SDN/RX library entering the scene in late 2019. The library brought with it a lighter footprint, as well as a more straightforward implementation of features to reduce confusion and errors (therefore also improving efficiency) in development and production.

From part 1 introducing Cypher dates and formats to part 4 where we combined duration functions and temporal components to translate amounts in one unit to another unit, we have covered a lot of ground in this series! Filling in the gaps, part 2 showed us how to truncate dates for searches and use durations for adding/subtracting amounts of time, and part 3 gave us an intro to temporal components and translations within component groups.

Photo credit I have had a couple of Github projects demonstrating bits of functionality for Spring Data Neo4j, but they had last been updated in 2020 when the new Spring Data Neo4j 6 was still a beta version known as SDN/RX. Since there have been several changes since then, I thought I would give the projects a refresh and make them current. Project code: SDN Marvel (imperative) SDN(rx) Marvel (reactive)

Photo credit *Updated Dec 15, 2021 My previous part 1, part 2, and part 3 posts on this topic introduced Cypher dates, translated formats to the Cypher-supported ISO 8601 format, calculated durations, accessed components, and translated durations to certain values. If you read those, then this post is the next post showing how to convert durations across component categories. If you haven’t read the previous posts leading up to this one, feel free to catch up (recommend at least Part 3 as this post’s prequel) - though it isn’t required.

*Updated Dec 9, 2021 My previous part 1 and part 2 posts on this topic introduced Cypher dates, translated formats to the Cypher-supported ISO 8601 format, calculated durations, and measured lengths of time. If you read those, then this post is the next step with Cypher dates on date components, component translations, and duration conversions. If you haven’t read parts 1 or 2, feel free to catch up - though this post doesn’t require the previous ones.

*Updated Dec 9, 2021 My previous part 1 post on this topic introduced Cypher dates and translated a few other date formats to the Cypher-supported ISO 8601 format. If you read that, then this post is the next step with Cypher dates that covers durations and more. If you haven’t seen part 1, feel free to catch up - though this part 2 doesn’t necessarily require reading part 1. :)

No matter what database, programming language, or webpage you might be using, dates always seem to cause headaches. Different date formats require calculations between application date pickers in user-friendly formats and system dates in backend devices and data sources. Then, programming languages each have their own libraries and structures for dealing with dates, too. This concept in the Neo4j ecosystem isn’t any less complex with Cypher (a graph query language) date formats, the APOC library date functions/procedures, and countless possible integration tools/APIs for data import and export.

We all pick our favorites and downplay other options (colors, cars, sports team, etc.). Programming language choice is not exempt. Whether it’s the one we are most comfortable with or the one that got us a job, we cling to that choice. Today, we will focus on Java. There are perfectly valid complaints and praises for this language, and we will cover them. As always, these are my experiences, so others may see things differently.

I was recently working on one of our developer guides (the CSV import guide) and came across some Cypher I needed to fine-tune in the CASE statement on that page. I had some trouble finding the correct syntax, so I reached out to some Cypher experts to get some help. As it turns out, I was looking at the Cypher CASE statement the wrong way and misunderstood its structure and design.