Complex join-intensive queries

We discussed in the previous chapter how relational database management systems suffer from significant drawbacks, as they have to deal with more and more complex data models. Asking these kinds of questions of a relational database requires the database engine to calculate the Cartesian product of the full indices on the tables involved in the query. This computation can take a very long time on larger datasets or if more than two tables are involved.

Graph database management systems do not suffer from these problems. The join operations are effectively precalculated and explicitly persisted in the database based on the relationships that connect nodes together. Therefore, joining data becomes as simple as hopping from one node to another--effectively, as simple as following a pointer. These complex questions that are so difficult to ask in a relational world are extremely simple, efficient, and fast in a graph structure.