Insert Documents
The MongoDB shell provides the following methods to insert documents into a collection:
To insert a single document, use
db.collection.insertOne().To insert multiple documents, use
db.collection.insertMany().
The examples on this page reference the Atlas sample dataset. You can create a free Atlas cluster and populate that cluster with sample data to follow along with these examples. To learn more, see Get Started with Atlas.
Insert a Single Document
db.collection.insertOne() inserts a single
document into a collection. If the document
does not specify an _id field, MongoDB adds the _id field with
an ObjectId value to the new document. See
Insert Behavior.
Example
To insert a new document into the sample_mflix.movies collection:
use sample_mflix db.movies.insertOne( { title: "The Favourite", genres: [ "Drama", "History" ], runtime: 121, rated: "R", year: 2018, directors: [ "Yorgos Lanthimos" ], cast: [ "Olivia Colman", "Emma Stone", "Rachel Weisz" ], type: "movie" } )
insertOne() returns a document that
includes the newly inserted document's _id field value.
To retrieve the inserted document, read the collection:
db.movies.find( { title: "The Favourite" } )
To ensure you return the document you inserted, you can instead
query by _id.
Insert Multiple Documents
db.collection.insertMany() can insert multiple
documents into a collection. Pass an array
of documents to the method. If the documents do not specify an _id
field, MongoDB adds the _id field with an ObjectId value to each
document. See Insert Behavior.
Example
To insert two new documents into the sample_mflix.movies
collection:
use sample_mflix db.movies.insertMany([ { title: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", genres: [ "Action", "Sci-Fi" ], runtime: 130, rated: "PG-13", year: 2018, directors: [ "J. A. Bayona" ], cast: [ "Chris Pratt", "Bryce Dallas Howard", "Rafe Spall" ], type: "movie" }, { title: "Tag", genres: [ "Comedy", "Action" ], runtime: 105, rated: "R", year: 2018, directors: [ "Jeff Tomsic" ], cast: [ "Annabelle Wallis", "Jeremy Renner", "Jon Hamm" ], type: "movie" } ])
insertMany() returns a document that
includes the newly inserted documents' _id field values.
To read documents in the collection:
db.movies.find( {} )
Insert Behavior
To learn more about the specific behavior of inserting documents, see Insert Behavior.
Learn More
To see more examples of inserting documents into a collection, see the
insertOne()anddb.collection.insertMany()method pages.To see all available methods to insert documents into a collection, see Additional Methods for Inserts