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Filtering Examples

This page shows practical examples of using grph CLI's filtering capabilities to find specific nodes and edges in your graphs.

Node Filtering​

By Single Attribute​

Find all nodes of a specific type:

grph nodes network.gexf --attr type=server

By Multiple Attributes (AND)​

Find servers with a specific weight:

grph nodes network.gexf --attr type=server --attr weight=2.0

Both conditions must be true for a node to match.

By Label Pattern​

Find nodes with labels starting with "Web":

grph nodes network.gexf --label "Web*"

Find nodes with labels containing "Server":

grph nodes network.gexf --label "*Server*"

Find nodes with labels matching a pattern:

grph nodes network.gexf --label "Server[12]"  # Matches Server1 or Server2

Combine Attribute and Label Filters​

Find servers with labels starting with "Production":

grph nodes network.gexf --attr type=server --label "Production*"

Edge Filtering​

By Source Node​

Find all edges originating from a specific node:

grph edges network.gexf --source loadbalancer1

By Target Node​

Find all edges pointing to a specific node:

grph edges network.gexf --target database1

By Both Source and Target​

Check if there's a direct connection between two nodes:

grph edges network.gexf --source server1 --target database1

By Attribute​

Find edges with a specific relationship:

grph edges network.gexf --attr relationship=queries

Complex Edge Queries​

Find all query edges from server1:

grph edges network.gexf --source server1 --attr relationship=queries

Find heavy-weight edges to the database:

grph edges network.gexf --target database1 --attr weight=2.0

Real-World Scenarios​

Infrastructure Analysis​

Find all database connections:

grph edges infra.gexf --attr relationship=queries

Find all nodes in a specific tier:

grph nodes infra.gexf --attr tier=frontend

Find all connections to a specific service:

grph edges infra.gexf --target api-gateway

Social Network Analysis​

Find all users in a community:

grph nodes social.gexf --attr community=tech

Find all connections of a specific type:

grph edges social.gexf --attr type=follows

Find connections from a specific user:

grph edges social.gexf --source user123

Dependency Analysis​

Find all direct dependencies of a package:

grph edges deps.gexf --source my-package

Find all packages that depend on a library:

grph edges deps.gexf --target lodash

Find dev dependencies:

grph edges deps.gexf --attr scope=dev

Tips​

No Results?​

If your filter returns no results:

  1. Check available attributes with grph info:

    grph info graph.gexf

  2. List all nodes/edges first to see what values exist:

    grph nodes graph.gexf
    grph edges graph.gexf

  3. Attribute matching is case-sensitive and exact:

    • --attr type=Server won't match type=server
    • --attr weight=1 won't match weight=1.0

Checking Specific Values​

Use JSON output with jq to explore unique values:

# Find all unique node types
grph nodes graph.gexf --json | jq '[.[].attributes.type] | unique'

# Find all unique edge relationships
grph edges graph.gexf --json | jq '[.[].attributes.relationship] | unique'

Complex Filtering with jq​

For queries that grph CLI doesn't support directly (like numeric comparisons or OR logic), use JSON output with jq:

# Nodes with weight > 1.0
grph nodes graph.gexf --json | jq '[.[] | select(.attributes.weight > 1.0)]'

# Edges with weight between 1.0 and 2.0
grph edges graph.gexf --json | jq '[.[] | select(.weight >= 1.0 and .weight <= 2.0)]'

# Nodes of type "server" OR "database"
grph nodes graph.gexf --json | jq '[.[] | select(.attributes.type == "server" or .attributes.type == "database")]'