---
title: hour
url: https://nexyron.tech/docs/cypher/functions/temporal/hour
description: Extracts the hour component from a temporal value. It is documented separately because time construction, sequence ordering, window parameters, and as of behavior materially change
---

# hour

## Generic Description

Extracts the hour component from a temporal value. It is documented separately because time construction, sequence ordering, window parameters, and as-of behavior materially change analytical meaning.

Simple example:

```cypher
RETURN hour()
```

## Consumer-Level Explanation

Use it for intraday grouping. Prefer this function when the temporal assumption should be visible to the planner, especially for event streams, freshness checks, and sequence features.

## More Detailed Explanation

`hour` belongs to the temporal construction, conversion, or extraction surface. Use it to make time semantics explicit in the query text: whether a value is date-only, time-only, timestamp-like, duration-like, current-time dependent, or bucketed to a chosen calendar unit.

## Advanced Example

This example names the event stream and operational context before applying `hour`, which helps planner tooling preserve the intended sequence semantics.

```cypher
MATCH (u:User)-[e:VIEWED]->(d:Document)
TIME e.ts BETWEEN datetime('2025-01-01T00:00:00Z') AND datetime('2025-02-01T00:00:00Z')
WITH u, e, d,
     unpivot(properties(d.metadata)) AS metadata_rows,
     date_trunc('day', e.ts) AS day_bucket,
     hour(e.ts) AS focused_value
RETURN u.user_id, d.title, day_bucket, metadata_rows, focused_value
LIMIT 10
```

## Real Use Cases

-   time-bucketed graph analytics
-   as-of filtering and event-window construction
-   making imported timestamp strings or epoch values typed before comparison

## Real Limitations And Tradeoffs

-   current-time functions are intentionally nondeterministic
-   timezone and local-time choices should be made explicit when results cross systems
-   extractors and truncation functions do not create temporal history; they only transform values already in the row