Query/double OPTIONAL MATCH issue - neo4j

Question

I think this is a long question for what's likely a simple answer. However I thought it wise to include the full context in case there's something wrong with my query logic (excuse the formatting if it's off - I've renamed the vars and it may be malformed, I need help with the theory and not the structure)
An organisation can have a sub office
(o:Organisation)-[:sub_office]->(an:Organisation)
Or a head office
(o)-[:head_office]->(ho:Organisation)
Persons in different sub offices can be employees or ex-employee
EX1
(o)-[:employee]->(p:Person{name:'person1'})<-[:ex_employee]-(an)
Persons can be related to other people through the management relationships. These management links can be variable length.
EX2
(o)-[:employee]->(p:Person{name:'person2'})-[:managed]->(p:Person{name:'person3'})<-[:ex_employee]-(an)
(o)-[:ex_employee]->(p:Person{name:'person4'})-[:managed]->(p:Person{name:'NOT_RETURNED1'})-[:managed]->(p:Person{name:'person5'})<-[:employee]-(an)
(o)-[:ex_employee]->(p:Person{name:'person6'})<-[:managed]-(p:Person{name:'NOT_RETURNED2'})<-[:managed]-(p:Person{name:'person8'})<-[:employee]-(an)
(o)-[:ex_employee]->(p:Person{name:'person9'})-[:managed]->(p:Person{name:'NOT_RETURNED4'})-[:managed]->(p:Person{name:'NOT_RETURNED5'})<-[:managed]-(p:Person{name:'person11'})<-[:employee]-(an)
....
I'm querying:
-organisation,
-sub office,
-how they're related
These are all working fine (I think...)
The issues I'm having is with returning Persons associated with the orgs (employees or ex employees) and their relationships to the organisation but only if they are connected to the other organisation directly (as in EX1) or through a managed chain (all of EX2 - I've tried to make it clearer by marking the Persons who won't be returned by the query as name 'NOT_RETURNED')
I've created the following:
MATCH (queryOrganisation:Organisation{name:'BigCorp'})-[orgRel]-(relatedOrganisation:Organisation)
WITH queryOrganisation, orgRel, relatedOrganisation
MATCH (queryOrganisation)-[employmentRel]->(queryPerson:Person)
OPTIONAL MATCH (queryPerson)<-[relatedOrgRel]-(relatedOrganisation)
OPTIONAL MATCH (queryPerson)-[:managed*1..]-(relatedPerson:Person)<-[relatedOrgRel]-(relatedOrganisation)
WITH queryOrganisation, orgRel, relatedOrganisation, employmentRel, queryPerson, relatedOrgRel, relatedPerson
WHERE NOT queryOrganisation.name = relatedOrganisation.name
RETURN ID(queryOrganisation) as queryOrganisationID,
ID(startNode(orgRel))as startNodeId, type(orgRel)as orgRel, ID(endNode(orgRel))as endNodeId,
ID(relatedOrganisation)as relatedOrganisationId, relatedOrganisation.name as relatedOrganisationName
COLLECT({
queryPerson:{endpoint:{ID:ID(queryPerson)}, endpointrelationship: type(employmentRel)},
relatedPerson:{endpoint:{ID:coalesce(ID(relatedPerson),ID(queryPerson))}, endpointrelationship:type(relatedOrgRel)}
}) as rels
I would have expected all the collected results to look like:
{
"startEmp":{
"ID":2715,
"startrelationship":"employee"
},
"relatedEmp":{
"ID":2722,
"endrelationship":"ex employee"
}
}
However the directly connected node results (same node ID) appear like:
{
"startEmp":{
"ID":2716,
"startrelationship":"employee"
},
"relatedEmp":{
"ID":2716,
"endrelationship":null
}
}
Why is that null appearing for type(relatedOrgRel)? Am I misunderstanding whats happening in the OPTIONAL MATCH and the relatedOrgRel gets overwritten by null during the second OPTIONAL MATCH? If so, how can I remedy?
Thanks

Answer 1

No, the OPTIONAL MATCHes cannot overwrite variables that are already defined.
I think the cause of the problems is when your second OPTIONAL MATCH doesn't match anything, but this is partially covered up by the COALESCE used in the collecting of persons in your return hides some of the conseque:
...
relatedPerson:{endpoint:{ID:coalesce(ID(relatedPerson),ID(queryPerson))}, endpointrelationship:type(relatedOrgRel)}
...
If relatedPerson is null, as it will be if your second OPTIONAL MATCH fails, then you're falling back to the id of queryPerson, but since you're not using a COALESCE for relatedOrgRel, this will still be null. You'll need a COALESCE here, or otherwise you'll need to figure out a better way to deal with the null variables in your OPTIONAL MATCHES in cases where they fail.