MongoDB Cheat Sheet

Maxime Beugnet5 min read • Published Jan 31, 2022 • Updated Sep 27, 2023

MongoDB

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First steps in the MongoDB World? This cheat sheet is filled with some handy tips, commands, and quick references to get you connected and CRUD'ing in no time!

Get a free MongoDB cluster in MongoDB Atlas.
Follow a course in MongoDB University.

Updates

September 2023: Updated for MongoDB 7.0.

Connect MongoDB Shell
Helpers
CRUD
Databases and Collections
Indexes
Handy commands
Change Streams
Replica Set
Sharded Cluster
Wrap-up

Connect via

mongosh

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mongosh documentation.

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Helpers

Show Databases

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Switch Database

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Show Collections

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Run JavaScript File

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CRUD

Create

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Read

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db.coll.findOne() // returns a single document
db.coll.find()    // returns a cursor - show 20 results - "it" to display more
db.coll.find().pretty()
db.coll.find({name: "Max", age: 32}) // implicit logical "AND".
db.coll.find({date: ISODate("2020-09-25T13:57:17.180Z")})
db.coll.find({name: "Max", age: 32}).explain("executionStats") // or "queryPlanner" or "allPlansExecution"
db.coll.distinct("name")

// Count
db.coll.countDocuments({age: 32}) // alias for an aggregation pipeline - accurate count
db.coll.estimatedDocumentCount()  // estimation based on collection metadata

// Comparison
db.coll.find({"year": {$gt: 1970}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$gte: 1970}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$lt: 1970}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$lte: 1970}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$ne: 1970}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$in: [1958, 1959]}})
db.coll.find({"year": {$nin: [1958, 1959]}})

// Logical
db.coll.find({name:{$not: {$eq: "Max"}}})
db.coll.find({$or: [{"year" : 1958}, {"year" : 1959}]})
db.coll.find({$nor: [{price: 1.99}, {sale: true}]})
db.coll.find({
  $and: [
    {$or: [{qty: {$lt :10}}, {qty :{$gt: 50}}]},
    {$or: [{sale: true}, {price: {$lt: 5 }}]}
  ]
})

// Element
db.coll.find({name: {$exists: true}})
db.coll.find({"zipCode": {$type: 2 }})
db.coll.find({"zipCode": {$type: "string"}})

// Aggregation Pipeline
db.coll.aggregate([
  {$match: {status: "A"}},
  {$group: {_id: "$cust_id", total: {$sum: "$amount"}}},
  {$sort: {total: -1}}
])

// Text search with a "text" index
db.coll.find({$text: {$search: "cake"}}, {score: {$meta: "textScore"}}).sort({score: {$meta: "textScore"}})

// Regex
db.coll.find({name: /^Max/})   // regex: starts by letter "M"
db.coll.find({name: /^Max$/i}) // regex case insensitive

// Array
db.coll.find({tags: {$all: ["Realm", "Charts"]}})
db.coll.find({field: {$size: 2}}) // impossible to index - prefer storing the size of the array & update it
db.coll.find({results: {$elemMatch: {product: "xyz", score: {$gte: 8}}}})

// Projections
db.coll.find({"x": 1}, {"actors": 1})               // actors + _id
db.coll.find({"x": 1}, {"actors": 1, "_id": 0})     // actors
db.coll.find({"x": 1}, {"actors": 0, "summary": 0}) // all but "actors" and "summary"

// Sort, skip, limit
db.coll.find({}).sort({"year": 1, "rating": -1}).skip(10).limit(3)

// Read Concern
db.coll.find().readConcern("majority")

Update

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db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$set: {"year": 2016, name: "Max"}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$unset: {"year": 1}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$rename: {"year": "date"} })
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$inc: {"year": 5}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$mul: {price: NumberDecimal("1.25"), qty: 2}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$min: {"imdb": 5}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$max: {"imdb": 8}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$currentDate: {"lastModified": true}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$currentDate: {"lastModified": {$type: "timestamp"}}})

// Array
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$push :{"array": 1}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$pull :{"array": 1}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$addToSet :{"array": 2}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$pop: {"array": 1}})  // last element
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$pop: {"array": -1}}) // first element
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$pullAll: {"array" :[3, 4, 5]}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$push: {"scores": {$each: [90, 92]}}})
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 2}, {$push: {"scores": {$each: [40, 60], $sort: 1}}}) // array sorted
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1, "grades": 80}, {$set: {"grades.$": 82}})
db.coll.updateMany({}, {$inc: {"grades.$[]": 10}})
db.coll.updateMany({}, {$set: {"grades.$[element]": 100}}, {multi: true, arrayFilters: [{"element": {$gte: 100}}]})

// FindOneAndUpdate
db.coll.findOneAndUpdate({"name": "Max"}, {$inc: {"points": 5}}, {returnNewDocument: true})

// Upsert
db.coll.updateOne({"_id": 1}, {$set: {item: "apple"}, $setOnInsert: {defaultQty: 100}}, {upsert: true})

// Replace
db.coll.replaceOne({"name": "Max"}, {"firstname": "Maxime", "surname": "Beugnet"})

// Write concern
db.coll.updateMany({}, {$set: {"x": 1}}, {"writeConcern": {"w": "majority", "wtimeout": 5000}})

Delete

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Databases and Collections

Drop

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Create Collection

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Other Collection Functions

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Indexes

List Indexes

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Create Indexes

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Drop Indexes

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Hide/Unhide Indexes

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Indexes documentation

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Handy commands

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Change Streams

Code Snippet

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Replica Set

Code Snippet

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Sharded Cluster

Code Snippet

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Wrap-up

I hope you liked my little but - hopefully - helpful cheat sheet. Of course, this list isn't exhaustive at all. There are a lot more commands, but I'm sure you will find them in the MongoDB documentation.

If you feel like I forgot a critical command in this list, please send me a tweet and I will make sure to fix it.

Check out our free courses on MongoDB University if you are not too sure what some of the above commands are doing.

If you have questions, please head to our developer community website where the MongoDB engineers and the MongoDB community will help you build your next big idea with MongoDB.

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Updates
Table of Contents
Connect via mongosh
Helpers
CRUD
Databases and Collections
Indexes
Handy commands
Change Streams
Replica Set
Sharded Cluster
Wrap-up

MongoDB

MongoDB Cheat Sheet

Updates

Table of Contents

Connect via

Helpers

Show Databases

Switch Database

Show Collections

Run JavaScript File

CRUD

Create

Read

Update

Delete

Databases and Collections

Drop

Create Collection

Other Collection Functions

Indexes

List Indexes

Create Indexes

Drop Indexes

Hide/Unhide Indexes

Handy commands

Change Streams

Replica Set

Sharded Cluster

Wrap-up

Related

Building with Patterns: The Bucket Pattern

Aggregation Pipeline: Applying Benford's Law to COVID-19 Data

MongoDB Performance Tuning Questions

Currency Analysis with Time Series Collections #2 — Simple Moving Average and Exponential Moving Average Calculation

Table of Contents