Is this syntax not right for executing an APOC query?

Question

call apoc.index.nodes('Product', 'name:iPhone*') yield node return node

In my graph I have 'iPhone X' and 'iPhone Plus', but this query doesn't return anything. I also have an index on 'name' property of Product.

Indexes
   ON :Product(name) ONLINE 

Answer 1

apoc.index.nodes is one of the APOC procedures for "manual indexes", which are also confusingly referred to in various docs as "legacy indexes" and "explicit indexes". Such indexes use the Apache Lucene library and are NOT the same as the standard neo4j indexes that most people use, and the way you create/update/use such indexes is also not standard.

For example, you cannot create a "manual index" via a Cypher CREATE INDEX clause. And neo4j Browser's :schema command will not show any manual indexes.

If you will only be searching :Product(name) via manual indexes, then you should drop your standard index for :Product(name), since it will not be needed but will add overhead (time and space) to your DB.

One way to create/update/use manual indexes is through the special APOC procedures. The APOC documentation for manual indexes (linked above) provides a good amount of information about how to add nodes and relationships to such indexes, and how to search using them.

As an example, before you can use the query in your question, you first have to add all the :Product(name) values to the Product manual index. If you want to add them all at once, you can use the following query (and since it has to return something, it just returns a count of the number of Products):

MATCH (p:Product)
CALL apoc.index.addNode(p, ['name'])
RETURN count(*)

[UPDATED]

Manual indexing is typically only used for partial and fuzzy text search use cases. When you just need exact value matching, standard indexes are recommended, especially since they require much less effort on your part. The reason manual indexes are called "manual" is because the responsibility for maintaining them falls entirely on your shoulders. That is, your node/relationship/property addition/removal/update queries would normally have to add/remove/update any relevant manual index entries as well. Note that when you update a property that is manually indexed, you have to remove the old index entry and then add the new entry.