Is it possible to include a JSON structure in node properties?

Neo4j allows the storage of JSON data within property values as strings.

However, for enhanced efficiency and ease of data traversal, it is often more beneficial to represent JSON data within the graph by creating distinct nodes and establishing relationships as needed.
This approach facilitates seamless data navigation.

If your objective is primarily to store data that is rarely accessed, you can opt to store it as a JSON string within properties. Later, you can parse and manipulate this data in your queries or applications as required.

Here's a basic example of how you can store JSON data in a Neo4j node property:

Suppose you have a node representing a user and wish to store additional user attributes as JSON within a property called "attributes."

CREATE (u:User {name: "DummyName", attributes: '{"age": 28, "email": "dummyname@example.com", "address": {"street": "Example St", "city": "Example City"}}'})

In this example, the "attributes" property contains a JSON string, as shown below:

To work with this JSON data in Neo4j, you can use the apoc library or Neo4j's built-in JSON functions (available from Neo4j 3.5 onwards).

For instance, you can use the apoc.convert.fromJsonMap function from the apoc library to convert the JSON string into a map

MATCH (a:User) WITH a, apoc.convert.fromJsonMap(a.attributes) AS attributesMap RETURN a.name,attributesMap.age,attributesMap.email, attributesMap.address.street

In this query, we first convert the "attributes" property value from JSON to a map, allowing us to access and query specific attributes within the JSON structure.

It's important to note that while storing JSON in this manner provides flexibility, it may have some limitations in terms of query performance, traversal, and indexing, especially for complex or frequently accessed JSON structures.
It's essential to consider your specific use case and data access patterns when deciding whether to store JSON data within node properties in Neo4j or not.