Overview
In this guide, you can learn how to use the C driver to update
documents in a MongoDB collection. You can call the mongoc_collection_update_one()
function to update a single document or the mongoc_collection_update_many()
function to update multiple documents.
Sample Data
The examples in this guide use the restaurants collection in the sample_restaurants
database from the Atlas sample datasets. To learn how to create a
free MongoDB Atlas cluster and load the sample datasets, see the
Get Started with Atlas guide.
Update Operations
You can perform update operations in MongoDB by using the following functions:
mongoc_collection_update_one(), which updates the first document that matches the search criteriamongoc_collection_update_many(), which updates all documents that match the search criteria
Each update function accepts the following parameters:
Collection: Specifies the collection to update.
Query filter document: Specifies which collection documents to update. For more information about query filters, see the Query Filter Documents section in the MongoDB Server manual.
Update document: Specifies the update operator, or the kind of update to perform, and the fields and values to change. For a list of update operators and their usage, see the Field Update Operators guide in the MongoDB Server manual.
Options document: Specifies options to customize the operation, or
NULL.Results location: Specifies a pointer to overwritable storage that will contain operation results, or
NULL.Error location: Specifies a location for an error value, or
NULL.
Update One Document
The following example uses the mongoc_collection_update_one() function to
update the name value of a document in the restaurants collection from
"Bagels N Buns" to "2 Bagels 2 Buns":
bson_t *query = BCON_NEW ("name", BCON_UTF8 ("Bagels N Buns")); bson_t *update = BCON_NEW ("$set", "{", "name", BCON_UTF8 ("2 Bagels 2 Buns"), "}"); bson_error_t error; if (!mongoc_collection_update_one (collection, query, update, NULL, NULL, &error)) { fprintf (stderr, "Update one operation failed: %s\n", error.message); } bson_destroy (query); bson_destroy (update);
Update Many Documents
The following example uses the mongoc_collection_update_many() function to update
all documents that have a cuisine value of "Pizza". After the update, the
documents have a cuisine value of "Pasta".
bson_t *query = BCON_NEW ("cuisine", BCON_UTF8 ("Pizza")); bson_t *update = BCON_NEW ("$set", "{", "cuisine", BCON_UTF8 ("Pasta"), "}"); bson_error_t error; if (!mongoc_collection_update_many (collection, query, update, NULL, NULL, &error)) { fprintf (stderr, "Update many operation failed: %s\n", error.message); } bson_destroy (query); bson_destroy (update);
Customize the Update Operation
You can modify the behavior of the mongoc_collection_update_one() and
mongoc_collection_update_many() functions by passing a BSON document that
specifies option values. The following table describes some options
you can set in the document:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| If set to true, allows the write operation to opt out of
document-level validation.Defaults to false.Type: bool |
| Sets the write concern for the operation. Defaults to the write concern of the namespace. Type: mongoc_write_concern_t |
| Specifies the kind of language collation to use when comparing
text. For more information, see Collation
in the MongoDB Server manual. Type: bson_t |
| A comment to attach to the operation. For more information, see the insert command
fields guide in the
MongoDB Server manual. Type: bson_value_t |
| A comment to attach to the operation. For more information, see the insert command
fields guide in the
MongoDB Server manual. Type: bson_value_t |
The following example uses the mongoc_collection_update_many() function to find all
documents that have borough value of "Manhattan". It then updates the borough
value in these documents to "Manhattan (north)". Because the upsert option is
set to true, the C driver inserts a new document if the query filter doesn't
match any existing documents.
bson_t *query = BCON_NEW ("borough", BCON_UTF8 ("Manhattan")); bson_t *update = BCON_NEW ("$set", "{", "borough", BCON_UTF8 ("Manhattan (north)"), "}"); bson_error_t error; bson_t opts; bson_init (&opts); bson_append_bool (&opts, "upsert", -1, true); if (!mongoc_collection_update_many (collection, query, update, &opts, NULL, &error)) { fprintf (stderr, "Update many operation failed: %s\n", error.message); } bson_destroy (query); bson_destroy (update); bson_destroy (&opts);
Additional Information
To learn more about creating query filters, see the Specify a Query guide.
API Documentation
To learn more about any of the functions discussed in this guide, see the following API documentation: