# Best practices
<a name="bestPractices"></a>

 The following are some general recommendations for working with Neptune Analytics. Use this information as a reference to quickly find recommendations for maximizing performance while using Neptune Analytics. 

**Contents**
+ [openCypher query best practices](best-practices-content.md)
  + [Use the SET clause to remove multiple properties at once](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-1)
  + [Use parameterized queries](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-2)
  + [Use flattened maps instead of nested maps in UNWIND clause](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-3)
  + [Place more restrictive nodes on the left side in Variable-Length Path (VLP) expressions](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-4)
  + [Avoid redundant node label checks by using granular relationship names](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-5)
  + [Specify edge labels where possible](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-6)
  + [Avoid using the WITH clause when possible](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-7)
  + [Place restrictive filters as early in the query as possible](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-8)
  + [Explicitly check whether properties exist](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-9)
  + [Do not use named path (unless it is required)](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-10)
  + [Avoid COLLECT(DISTINCT())](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-11)
  + [Prefer the properties function over individual property lookup when retrieving all property values](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-12)
  + [Perform static computations outside of the query](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-13)
  + [Batch inputs using UNWIND instead of individual statements](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-14)
  + [Prefer using custom IDs for node](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-15)
  + [Avoid doing `~id` computations in the query](best-practices-content.md#best-practices-content-16)
+ [Best practices for metadata filtering in GraphRAG](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md)
  + [Design metadata attributes for efficient filtering](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md#best-practices-graphrag-filters-metadata)
  + [Choose the right filter type](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md#best-practices-graphrag-filters-choose)
  + [Combine filters efficiently with `andAll` and `orAll`](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md#best-practices-graphrag-filters-combine)
  + [Avoid using `startsWith` filters when possible](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md#best-practices-graphrag-filters-startswith)
  + [Scale graph capacity for filter-heavy workloads](best-practices-graphrag-filters.md#best-practices-graphrag-filters-scaling)