Using Merge

Merge lets you combine nodes of a single category, or edges of a single relationship based on a property value. This is useful for quickly simplifying a graph.

Examples use the open-source dataset for the HBO series Game of Thrones. For a hands-on exercise, see our How to GraphXR tutorials.

Using Game of Thrones data, we can use the seasonEpisode property in the Lines category to combine all of the lines spoken on a single episode into a single Lines node connected to its Episodes node.

To combine nodes using Merge:

1. Deselect all the data to operate on all the data.

2. Open the Transform panel and Merge tab.

3. Click Category and select the Lines category from the dropdown menu.

4. In the Select key properties dropdown (or scrollable list), select the seasonEpisode property.

   

   NOTE: The resulting merged node will preserve only one of the values for each property from its source nodes. In most cases, these properties should be cleared by checking the Clear Unselected Property checkbox before running the merge.

5. Click Run.
   Error and progress messages are displayed beneath the Run button.
   The graph is now far simpler. Instead of a few thousand nodes, the Lines category now includes only 73 nodes, the number of episodes in the series.