split

Generic Description

Splits a string into a list using an explicit delimiter. It is documented separately because text normalization and slicing often become grouping keys, search inputs, or exported identifiers.

Simple example:

RETURN split('runbook:incident:network', ':') AS parts

Consumer-Level Explanation

Use it when a compact source field, tag list, or path-like identifier needs to become a list inside Cypher. Prefer this function when the text operation is part of the query contract and should be visible during review.

More Detailed Explanation

split runs inside the row pipeline, which makes text cleanup, extraction, and grouping keys visible to Nexyron instead of hidden in application code. That is especially important for imported document metadata, labels, and identifiers that feed later matching or indexing.

Advanced Example

This example applies split while shaping document metadata, so text cleanup is part of the auditable query rather than an application-side afterthought.

MATCH (d:Document)
WITH d, split(properties(d.metadata).kind + ':' + properties(d.metadata).lang, ':') AS metadata_parts
RETURN d.title AS document, metadata_parts, head(metadata_parts) AS content_kind
ORDER BY document

Real Use Cases

• normalizing document titles and source identifiers before grouping
• extracting prefixes, suffixes, or tokens from imported text fields
• checking payload size or Unicode normalization before ingestion cleanup

Real Limitations And Tradeoffs

• query-time cleanup is explicit but can hide upstream data-quality debt if overused
• string operations are not semantic search; use vector or semantic procedures for meaning-based matching
• byte length and character length answer different questions and should not be substituted blindly