Overview of GFQL#

New to GFQL, the open source dataframe-native graph query language? This article overviews the gaps it fills, special features like GPU accelerations, and where to go next.

Why GFQL?#

GFQL addresses a critical gap in the data community by providing an in-process graph query language that operates at the compute tier. This means you can:

  • Graph search: Easily and efficiently query and filter nodes and edges using a familiar syntax.

  • Avoid External Infrastructure: Avoid calls to external infrastructures and eliminate the need for extra databases.

  • Leverage Existing Workflows: Integrate with your current Python data science tools and libraries.

  • Achieve High Performance: Utilize GPU acceleration for massive speedups in graph processing.

  • Simplify Graph Analytics: Write expressive and concise graph queries in Python.

Key Features#

  • Dataframe-Native Integration: Works directly with Pandas, cuDF, and Apache Arrow dataframes.

  • High Performance: Optimized for both CPU and GPU execution, capable of processing billions of edges.

  • Ease of Use: Install via pip and start querying without the need for external databases.

  • Seamless Visualization: Integrated with PyGraphistry for GPU-accelerated graph visualization.

  • Flexibility: Suitable for a wide range of applications, including cybersecurity, fraud detection, financial analysis, and more.

  • Architectural Freedom: Use GFQL with your dataframes on your local CPU/GPU, or offload to a remote GPU cluster.

Installation Guide#

GFQL is built into pygraphistry:

pip install graphistry

Ensure you have pandas or cudf installed, depending on whether you want to run on CPU or GPU.

For more information, see Install .

Key GFQL Concepts#

GFQL works on the same graphs as the rest of the PyGraphistry library. The operations run on top of the dataframe engine of your choice, with initial support for Pandas dataframes (CPU) and cuDF dataframes (GPU).

  • Nodes and Edges: Represented using dataframes, making integration with Pandas and cuDF seamless

  • Functional: Build queries by layering operations, similar to functional method chaining in Pandas

  • Query: Run graph pattern matching using method chain() in a style similar to the popoular OpenCypher graph query language

  • Predicates: Apply conditions to filter nodes and edges based on their properties, reusing the optimized native operations of the underlying dataframe engine

  • GPU & CPU vectorization: GFQL automatically leverages GPU acceleration and in-memory columnar processing for massive speedups on your queries

  • Optional remote mode: Bind to remote data or upload it quickly as Arrow, and run your same Python and GFQL queries on remote GPU resources when available

Quick Examples#

Find Nodes of a Certain Type

Example: Find all nodes where the type is “person”.

from graphistry import n

people_nodes_df = g.chain([ n({"type": "person"}) ])._nodes
print('Number of person nodes:', len(people_nodes_df))

Visualize 2-Hop Edge Sequences with an Attribute

Example: Find 2-hop paths where edges have “interesting”: True.

from graphistry import n, e_forward

g_2_hops = g.chain([n(), e_forward({"interesting": True}, hops=2) ])
g_2_hops.plot()

Find Nodes 1-2 Hops Away and Label Each Hop

Example: Find nodes up to 2 hops away from node “a” and label each hop.

from graphistry import n, e_undirected

g_2_hops = g.chain([
    n({g._node: "a"}),
    e_undirected(name="hop1"),
    e_undirected(name="hop2")
])
first_hop_edges = g_2_hops._edges[ g_2_hops._edges["hop1"] == True ]
print('Number of first-hop edges:', len(first_hop_edges))

Query for Transaction Nodes Between Risky Nodes

Example: Find transaction nodes between two kinds of risky nodes.

from graphistry import n, e_forward, e_reverse

g_risky = g.chain([
    n({"risk1": True}),
    e_forward(to_fixed_point=True),
    n({"type": "transaction"}, name="hit"),
    e_reverse(to_fixed_point=True),
    n({"risk2": True})
])
hits = g_risky._nodes[ g_risky._nodes["hit"] == True ]
print('Number of transaction hits:', len(hits))

Filter by Multiple Node Types Using `is_in`

Example: Filter nodes and edges by multiple types.

from graphistry import n, e_forward, e_reverse, is_in

g_filtered = g.chain([
    n({"type": is_in(["person", "company"])}),
    e_forward({"e_type": is_in(["owns", "reviews"])}, to_fixed_point=True),
    n({"type": is_in(["transaction", "account"])}, name="hit"),
    e_reverse(to_fixed_point=True),
    n({"risk2": True})
])
hits = g_filtered._nodes[ g_filtered._nodes["hit"] == True ]
print('Number of filtered hits:', len(hits))

Leveraging GPU Acceleration#

GFQL is optimized to take advantage of GPU acceleration using cudf and RAPIDS. When you use GPU dataframes, GFQL automatically executes queries on the GPU for massive speedups.

Automatic GPU Acceleration

Example: Run GFQL queries with GPU dataframes.

import cudf
import graphistry

# Load data into GPU dataframes
e_gdf = cudf.read_parquet('edges.parquet')
n_gdf = cudf.read_parquet('nodes.parquet')

# Create a graph with GPU dataframes
g_gpu = graphistry.edges(e_gdf, 'src', 'dst').nodes(n_gdf, 'id')

# Run GFQL query (executes on GPU)
g_result = g_gpu.chain([ ... ])  # Your GFQL query here
print('Number of resulting edges:', len(g_result._edges))

Forcing GPU Mode

Example: Explicitly set the engine to ensure GPU execution.

g_result = g_gpu.chain([ ... ], engine='cudf')

Run Remotely#

You may want to run GFQL remotely such as if the data is remote, e.g., in Hub or cloud storage, and you have faster remote GPU servers for acting on it.

Bind to Remote Data and Query

Example: Bind to remote data and run queries on remote GPU resources.

import graphistry
from graphistry import n, e

g = graphistry.bind(dataset_id='my-dataset-id')

nodes_df = g.chain_remote([ n() ])._nodes

Upload Data and Run GPU Python Remotely

Example: Upload local data to a remote GPU server and run full GPU Python tasks on it.

import graphistry
from graphistry import n, e

# Fully self-contained so can be transferred
def my_remote_trim_graph_task(g):
    # Trick: You can also put database fetch calls here!
    return (g
        .nodes(g._nodes[:10])
        .edges(g._edges[:10])
    )

# Upload any local graph data to the remote server
g2 = g1.upload()
print(g2._dataset_id, g2._nodes_file_id, g2._edges_file_id)

# Compute on it locally
g_result = g2.python_remote_g(my_remote_trim_graph_task)
print('Number of resulting edges:', len(g_result._edges))

See also python_remote_table() and python_remote_json() for returning other types of data.

Visualizing GFQL Results#

GFQL integrates with PyGraphistry, allowing you to visualize your graphs with GPU-accelerated rendering.

Example: Visualize high PageRank nodes.

from graphistry import n, e

# Compute PageRank using cuGraph (GPU)
g_enriched = g_result.compute_cugraph('pagerank')

# Filter nodes with high PageRank
g_high_pagerank = g_enriched.chain([
    n(query='pagerank > 0.1'), e(), n(query='pagerank > 0.1')
])

# Plot the subgraph
g_high_pagerank.plot()

Learn More

Explore the following sections to dive deeper into GFQL’s capabilities:

GFQL APIs#

Access detailed documentation of GFQL’s API: