S-Cypher: temporal query language on the temporal property graph model

Traditional graph data models lack explicit temporal dimension representation, which may lead to complex temporal queries and potential loss of temporal information integrity. To address this limitation, a temporal property graph data model and a corresponding temporal graph query language called S-Cypher were proposed. The temporal graph data model represents utilized object nodes to represent entities, and introduced property nodes and value nodes to represent entity properties. Valid time was recorded on nodes and edges between object nodes to express temporal information, and the recorded valid time adhered a set of temporal constraints. S-Cypher served as a temporal extension to Cypher, ensured compatibility while providing a concise and comprehensive temporal graph query syntax, including temporal data types, temporal graph pattern matching, time window constraints, and temporal paths. An implementation scheme for executing S-Cypher temporal graph queries on Neo4j was also provided. Experimental results demonstrate that the query time of S-Cypher is on average 1.29 times that of Cypher, indicating that S-Cypher can effectively manage temporal graph data in Neo4j with satisfactory performance.