Using backticks in all queries to enhance compatibility for spaces and special characters

[jurrian]

I'd like to propose that backticks are used in all queries, in order to make all neomodel queries compatible with spaces and special characters. Some queries already use backticks by default.
Using backticks has been discussed before in #156 and #188.

However, in #156 the following was mentioned by @robinedwards:

The thing is they do break when they are mapped to python identifiers such as properties (RelManagers)

I have tried, but couldn't find any problems that might arise.
This proposal would help compatibility in general and shouldn't break anything.

[aanastasiou]

@jurrian Can you please clarify if that is backticks in the way they used to be interpreted in Python 2 (?). Backtick is this character ( ` ) right?

[jurrian]

The backtick is indeed the character ( ` ). Strings containing these backticks are treated literal so a query containing the string 'http://example.com#' would err, while `http://example.com#` (note the backticks) would work. So I am not talking about backticks as used in Python 2 but as literal designators.

If I remember correctly, neomodels already uses backticks in some queries but not all causing less compatibility (i.e. for urls)

[aanastasiou]

@jurrian Alright, I am still somewhat confused (sorry). Backticks within string literals are treated as part of the string. How does this help? Is it possible to provide a simple print based example?

[aanastasiou]

@jurrian Any update about this?

[jurrian]

Say I want to produce a Cypher query like this:

MATCH (n)-[`http://schema.org/knows`]-(m)
RETURN n

This is valid Cypher. Note the backticks around the URL.
Last time I checked, when I created this issue, doing something like that was not possible in Neomodels.
As specified in the issues mentioned before, backticking all queries on all appropriate places would make Neomodels more compatible for spaces and special characters.

In fact, a lot of queries that Neomodels produces already contain backticks, but not everywhere. Therefore I suggest to use backticks in all places in the query. Refering back to my first post, I haven't found any problems that might arise using backticks everywhere (of course everywhere where Cypher language allows).

Hope this answers your question.

[aanastasiou]

@jurrian Yes it does, thank you very much for clarifying.