Deleting all nodes and relationships in neo4j using cypher exceeds heap space

Question

I have been trying to run this query as recommended in the neo4j google group and in other sources online:

START n = node(*) MATCH n-[r?]-() WHERE ID(n)>0 DELETE n, r;

Answer 1

According to neo4j documentation, the deletion of a graph isa done through:

MATCH (n)
OPTIONAL MATCH (n)-[r]-()
DELETE n,r;

To avoid the java heap space error, I conbined this code with LIMIT:

MATCH (n)
OPTIONAL MATCH (n)-[r]-()
WITH n,r LIMIT 100000 DELETE n,r;

It works to reduce node number and eventually lets use the first, recomended and more general code.