Graph indexing and querying: a review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed discussion for different types of graph queries and a different mechanism for indexing and querying graph databases. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the existing approaches and techniques for indexing and querying graph databases. For each approach, the strengths and weaknesses are discussed with particular emphasis on the target application domain. Based on an analysis of the stateoftheart of research literature, the paper provides insights for future research directions and untouched challenging research aspects. Findings – Several graph indexing and querying techniques have been proposed in the literature. However, there is still a clear room for improvement and further research issues in that domain. Research limitations/implications – The paper identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the different graph indexing mechanisms and their suitability for different practical applications. The paper provides some guidelines and recommendations which are useful for future research in the area of graph databases. Practical implications – The paper has practical implications for social networks, protein networks, chemical compounds, multimedia database, and semantic web. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the implementation of an efficient indexing and querying mechanism for graph databases in different application domains.