RETURN After Update

The RETURN clause following an update clause has access to the variables that are used in the immediately preceding update clause.

For CREATE, the data available to the immediately following RETURN statement is the newly inserted node/relationship.

CREATE (u:User {name: 'Alice', age: 35}) RETURN u.*;

┌────────┬───────┐
│ u.name │ u.age │
│ STRING │ INT64 │
├────────┼───────┤
│ Alice  │ 35    │
└────────┴───────┘

For SET, the data available to the RETURN statement is the updated value.

MATCH (u:User) WHERE u.name = "Adam"
SET u.name = "Aisha" RETURN u.*;

┌────────┬───────┐
│ u.name │ u.age │
│ STRING │ INT64 │
├────────┼───────┤
│ Aisha  │ 30    │
└────────┴───────┘

For DELETE, the data available to the RETURN statement is the deleted node/relationship record.

MATCH (u:User) WHERE u.name = 'Adam'
DETACH DELETE u RETURN u.*;

┌────────┬───────┐
│ u.name │ u.age │
│ STRING │ INT64 │
├────────┼───────┤
│ Adam   │ 30    │
└────────┴───────┘