A Gremlin query is a chain of operations/functions that are evaluated from left to right. A simple grandfather query is provided below over the Graph of the Gods dataset discussed in Chapter 3, Getting Started.

gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father').out('father').values('name')
==>saturn

The query above can be read:

Taken together, these steps form a path-like traversal query. Each step can be decomposed and its results demonstrated. This style of building up a traversal/query is useful when constructing larger, complex query chains.

gremlin> g
==>graphtraversalsource[janusgraph[cql:127.0.0.1], standard]
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules')
==>v[24]
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father')
==>v[16]
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father').out('father')
==>v[20]
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father').out('father').values('name')
==>saturn

For a sanity check, it is usually good to look at the properties of each return, not the assigned long id.

gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').values('name')
==>hercules
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father').values('name')
==>jupiter
gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').out('father').out('father').values('name')
==>saturn

Note the related traversal that shows the entire father family tree branch of Hercules. This more complicated traversal is provided in order to demonstrate the flexibility and expressivity of the language. A competent grasp of Gremlin provides the JanusGraph user the ability to fluently navigate the underlying graph structure.

gremlin> g.V().has('name', 'hercules').repeat(out('father')).emit().values('name')
==>jupiter
==>saturn

Some more traversal examples are provided below.

gremlin> hercules = g.V().has('name', 'hercules').next()
==>v[1536]
gremlin> g.V(hercules).out('father', 'mother').label()
==>god
==>human
gremlin> g.V(hercules).out('battled').label()
==>monster
==>monster
==>monster
gremlin> g.V(hercules).out('battled').valueMap()
==>{name=nemean}
==>{name=hydra}
==>{name=cerberus}

Each step (denoted by a separating .) is a function that operates on the objects emitted from the previous step. There are numerous steps in the Gremlin language (see Gremlin Steps). By simply changing a step or order of the steps, different traversal semantics are enacted. The example below returns the name of all the people that have battled the same monsters as Hercules who themselves are not Hercules (i.e. "co-battlers" or perhaps, "allies").

Given that The Graph of the Gods only has one battler (Hercules), another battler (for the sake of example) is added to the graph with Gremlin showcasing how vertices and edges are added to the graph.

gremlin> theseus = graph.addVertex('human')
==>v[3328]
gremlin> theseus.property('name', 'theseus')
==>null
gremlin> cerberus = g.V().has('name', 'cerberus').next()
==>v[2816]
gremlin> battle = theseus.addEdge('battled', cerberus, 'time', 22)
==>e[7eo-2kg-iz9-268][3328-battled->2816]
gremlin> battle.values('time')
==>22

When adding a vertex, an optional vertex label can be provided. An edge label must be specified when adding edges. Properties as key-value pairs can be set on both vertices and edges. When a property key is defined with SET or LIST cardinality, addProperty must be used when adding a respective property to a vertex.

gremlin> g.V(hercules).as('h').out('battled').in('battled').where(neq('h')).values('name')
==>theseus

The example above has 4 chained functions: out, in, except, and values (i.e. name is shorthand for values('name')). The function signatures of each are itemized below, where V is vertex and U is any object, where V is a subset of U.

When chaining together functions, the incoming type must match the outgoing type, where U matches anything. Thus, the "co-battled/ally" traversal above is correct.

One convenient feature of the Gremlin Console is that it automatically iterates all results from a query executed from the gremlin> prompt. This works well within the REPL environment as it shows you the results as a String. As you transition towards writing a Gremlin application, it is important to understand how to iterate a traversal explicitly because your application’s traversals will not iterate automatically. These are some of the common ways to iterate the Traversal:

A Java code example is shown below to demonstrate these concepts:

Traversal t = g.V().has("name", "pluto"); // Define a traversal
// Note the traversal is not executed/iterated yet
Vertex pluto = null;
if (t.hasNext()) { // Check if results are available
    pluto = g.V().has("name", "pluto").next(); // Get one result
    g.V(pluto).drop().iterate(); // Execute a traversal to drop pluto from graph
}
// Note the traversal can be cloned for reuse
Traversal tt = t.asAdmin().clone();
if (tt.hasNext()) {
    System.err.println("pluto was not dropped!");
}
List<Vertex> gods = g.V().hasLabel("god").toList(); // Find all the gods