Definition
- $toObjectId
- Converts a value to an - ObjectId(). If the value cannot be converted to an ObjectId,- $toObjectIderrors. If the value is null or missing,- $toObjectIdreturns null.- $toObjectIdhas the following syntax:- { - $toObjectId: <expression> - } - The - $toObjectIdtakes any valid expression.- The - $toObjectIdis a shorthand for the following- $convertexpression:- { $convert: { input: <expression>, to: "objectId" } } - Tip
Behavior
The following table lists the input types that can be converted to an ObjectId:
| Input Type | Behavior | 
|---|---|
| String | Returns an ObjectId for the hexadecimal string of length 24. You cannot convert a string value that is not a hexadecimal string of length 24. | 
The following table lists some conversion to date examples:
| Example | Results | 
|---|---|
| 
 | ObjectId("5ab9cbfa31c2ab715d42129e") | 
| 
 | Error | 
Example
Create a collection orders with the following documents:
db.orders.insertMany( [    { _id: "5ab9cbe531c2ab715d42129a", item: "apple", qty: 10 },    { _id: ObjectId("5ab9d0b831c2ab715d4212a8"), item: "pie", qty: 5 },    { _id: ObjectId("5ab9d2d331c2ab715d4212b3"), item: "ice cream", qty: 20 },    { _id: "5ab9e16431c2ab715d4212b4", item: "almonds", qty: 50 }, ] ) 
The following aggregation operation on the orders collection
converts the _id to ObjectId before sorting by the value:
// Define stage to add convertedId field with converted _id value idConversionStage = {    $addFields: {       convertedId: { $toObjectId: "$_id" }    } }; // Define stage to sort documents by the converted qty values sortStage = {    $sort: { "convertedId": -1 } }; db.orders.aggregate( [    idConversionStage,    sortStage ] ) 
The operation returns the following documents:
{   _id: '5ab9e16431c2ab715d4212b4',   item: 'almonds',   qty: 50,   convertedId: ObjectId("5ab9e16431c2ab715d4212b4") }, {   _id: ObjectId("5ab9d2d331c2ab715d4212b3"),   item: 'ice cream',   qty: 20,   convertedId: ObjectId("5ab9d2d331c2ab715d4212b3") }, {   _id: ObjectId("5ab9d0b831c2ab715d4212a8"),   item: 'pie',   qty: 5,   convertedId: ObjectId("5ab9d0b831c2ab715d4212a8") }, {   _id: '5ab9cbe531c2ab715d42129a',   item: 'apple',   qty: 10,   convertedId: ObjectId("5ab9cbe531c2ab715d42129a") } 
Note
If the conversion operation encounters an error, the aggregation
operation stops and throws an error. To override this behavior, use
$convert instead.