Go quick start

At the end of this guide, you will have created a simple Go Hello, World! program that connects to the Memgraph database and executes simple queries.

Go driver

You can find the official Go driver on GitHub.

Prerequisites

To follow this guide, you will need:

• A running Memgraph instance. If you need to set up Memgraph, take a look at the Installation guide.
• A basic understanding of graph databases and the property graph model.
• The newest version of Go installed.

Basic Setup

We'll be using a simple Go application to demonstrate how to connect to a running Memgraph instance.

Let's jump in and create our application.

1. Create a new directory for your app, for example /MyApp and position yourself in it.
2. Create a program.go file and add the following code:

package main

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/neo4j/neo4j-go-driver/v4/neo4j"
)

func main() {
    dbUri := "bolt://localhost:7687"
    driver, err := neo4j.NewDriver(dbUri, neo4j.BasicAuth("username", "password", ""))
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    // Handle driver lifetime based on your application lifetime requirements  driver's lifetime is usually
    // bound by the application lifetime, which usually implies one driver instance per application
    defer driver.Close()
    item, err := insertItem(driver)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    fmt.Printf("%v\n", item.Message)
}

func insertItem(driver neo4j.Driver) (*Item, error) {
    // Sessions are short-lived, cheap to create and NOT thread safe. Typically create one or more sessions
    // per request in your web application. Make sure to call Close on the session when done.
    // For multi-database support, set sessionConfig.DatabaseName to requested database
    // Session config will default to write mode, if only reads are to be used configure session for
    // read mode.
    session := driver.NewSession(neo4j.SessionConfig{})
    defer session.Close()
    result, err := session.WriteTransaction(createItemFn)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    return result.(*Item), nil
}

func createItemFn(tx neo4j.Transaction) (interface{}, error) {
    records, err := tx.Run(
        "CREATE (a:Greeting) SET a.message = $message RETURN 'Node ' + id(a) + ': ' + a.message",
        map[string]interface{}{"message": "Hello, World!"})
    // In face of driver native errors, make sure to return them directly.
    // Depending on the error, the driver may try to execute the function again.
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    record, err := records.Single()
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    // You can also retrieve values by name, with e.g. `id, found := record.Get("n.id")`
    return &Item{
        Message: record.Values[0].(string),
    }, nil
}

type Item struct {
    Message string
}

3. Create a go.mod file by running:

go mod init example.com/hello

4. Add the Bolt driver with the command:

go get github.com/neo4j/neo4j-go-driver/v4@v4.3.1

5. Run the app with the following command:

go run .\program.go

You should see an output similar to the following:

Node 1: Hello, World!

Where to next?

For real-world examples of how to use Memgraph, we suggest you take a look at the Tutorials page. You can also browse through the Database functionalities section to get an overview of all the functionalities Memgraph offers.