OTHERWISE

OTHERWISE evaluates branches in order and returns the first result containing at least one row. A row containing null is still a row.

MATCH (p:Person {name: 'Nobody'}) RETURN p.name AS name
OTHERWISE
RETURN 'No match' AS name;

The result is No match. Later branches are not evaluated once a nonempty result is found, but all branches must pass binding and schema validation. An unsupported function or incompatible result schema in a later branch is therefore still an error.

Like set operations, branches must agree on column names, order and compatible types, including numeric and empty lists. This is a read-query composition feature, not an exception handler or a write retry mechanism.

A following NEXT keeps the graph focus of the branch that produced the rows, including an unset focus. An earlier empty branch does not leave the continuation on its graph. When every branch is empty, focus stays on the first branch.