Eoin Brazil

Staff Curriculum Engineer


> Learn more about [loading sample data](https://www.mongodb.com/docs/atlas/sample-data/).

Did you know that MongoDB Atlas provides a complete set of example data to help you learn faster? The [Load Sample Data](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/) feature enables you to load eight datasets into your database to explore. You can use this with the MongoDB Atlas M0 free tier to try out MongoDB Atlas and MongoDB's features. The sample data helps you try out features such as indexing, querying including geospatial, and aggregations, as well as using MongoDB Tooling such as MongoDB Charts and MongoDB Compass.

In the rest of this post, we'll explore why it was created, how to first load the sample data, and then we'll outline what the datasets contain. We'll also cover how you can download these datasets to use them on your own local machine.

## Table of Contents

-   [Why Did We Create This Sample Data Set?](#sql-atlas-sample-data-why-created)
-   [Loading the Sample Data Set into Your Atlas Cluster](#sql-atlas-sample-data-loading)
-   [A Deeper Dive into the Atlas Sample Data](#sql-atlas-sample-data-deeper-dive)
    -   [Sample AirBnB Listings Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-airbnb-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Analytics Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-analytics-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Geospatial Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-geospatial-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Mflix Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-mflix-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Restaurants Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-restaurants-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Supply Store Dataset](#sql-sample-supply-store-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Training Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-training-listing-dataset)
    -   [Sample Weather Dataset](#sql-atlas-sample-weather-listing-dataset)
-   [Downloading the Dataset for Use on Your Local Machine](#sql-atlas-sample-data-local-installation)
-   [Wrap Up](#sql-atlas-sample-data-wrap-up)

## <a name="sql-atlas-sample-data-why-created">Why Did We Create This Sample Data Set?

Before diving into how we load the sample data, it's worth highlighting why we built the feature in the first place. We built this feature because often people would create a new empty Atlas cluster and they'd then have to wait until they wrote their application or imported data into it before they were able to learn and explore the platform. Atlas's Sample Data was the solution. It removes this roadblock and quickly allows you to get a feel for how MongoDB works with different types of data.

## <a name="sql-atlas-sample-data-loading">Loading the Sample Data Set into Your Atlas Cluster

Loading the Sample Data requires an existing Atlas cluster and [three steps](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/).

-   In your left navigation pane in Atlas, click Clusters, then choose which cluster you want to load the data into.
-   For that cluster, click the Ellipsis (...) button.

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/load_sample_data_step_1_69e3f1d719.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

-   Then, click the button "Load Sample Dataset."

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/load_sample_data_step_2_8beb82a1fe.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

-   Click the correspondingly named button, "Load Sample Dataset."

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/load_sample_data_step_3_8432b8ff61.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

This process will take a few minutes to complete, so let's look at exactly what kind of data we're going to load. Once the process is completed, you should see a banner on your Atlas Cluster similar to this image below.

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/load_sample_data_step_4_e813cddf00.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

## <a name="sql-atlas-sample-data-deeper-dive">A Deeper Dive into the Atlas Sample Data

The Atlas Sample Datasets are comprised of eight databases and their associated collections. Each individual dataset is documented to illustrate the schema, the collections, the indexes, and a sample document from each collection.

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-airbnb-listing-dataset">Sample AirBnB Listings Dataset

This dataset consists of a single collection of AirBnB reviews and listings. There are indexes on the `property type`, `room type`, `bed`, `name`, and on the `location` fields as well as on the `_id` of the documents.

The data is a randomized subset of the original publicly available AirBnB dataset. It covers several different cities around the world. This dataset is used extensively in [MongoDB University courses](https://university.mongodb.com/courses/catalog).

You can find more details on the [Sample AirBnB Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-airbnb/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-analytics-listing-dataset">Sample Analytics Dataset

This dataset consists of three collections of randomly generated financial services data. There are no additional indexes beyond the `_id` index on each collection. The collections represent accounts, transactions, and customers.

The transactions collection uses [the Bucket Pattern](https://developer.mongodb.com/how-to/bucket-pattern) to hold a set of transactions for a period. It was built for [MongoDB's private training](https://www.mongodb.com/products/training/private), specifically for [the MongoDB for Data Analysis course](https://www.mongodb.com/products/training/instructor-led).

The advantages in using this pattern are a reduction in index size when compared to storing each transaction in a single document. It can potentially simplify queries and it provides the ability to use pre-aggregated data in our documents.

``` json
// transaction collection document example
{
"account_id": 794875,
"transaction_count": 6,
"bucket_start_date": {"$date": 693792000000},
"bucket_end_date": {"$date": 1473120000000},
"transactions": [
   {
      "date": {"$date": 1325030400000},
      "amount": 1197,
      "transaction_code": "buy",
      "symbol": "nvda",
      "price": "12.7330024299341033611199236474931240081787109375",
      "total": "15241.40390863112172326054861"
   },
   {
      "date": {"$date": 1465776000000},
      "amount": 8797,
      "transaction_code": "buy",
      "symbol": "nvda",
      "price": "46.53873172406391489630550495348870754241943359375",
      "total": "409401.2229765902593427995271"
   },
   {
      "date": {"$date": 1472601600000},
      "amount": 6146,
      "transaction_code": "sell",
      "symbol": "ebay",
      "price": "32.11600884852845894101847079582512378692626953125",
      "total": "197384.9903830559086514995215"
   },
   {
      "date": {"$date": 1101081600000},
      "amount": 253,
      "transaction_code": "buy",
      "symbol": "amzn",
      "price": "37.77441226157566944721111212857067584991455078125",
      "total": "9556.926302178644370144411369"
   },
   {
      "date": {"$date": 1022112000000},
      "amount": 4521,
      "transaction_code": "buy",
      "symbol": "nvda",
      "price": "10.763069758141103449133879621513187885284423828125",
      "total": "48659.83837655592869353426977"
   },
   {
      "date": {"$date": 936144000000},
      "amount": 955,
      "transaction_code": "buy",
      "symbol": "csco",
      "price": "27.992136535152877030441231909207999706268310546875",
      "total": "26732.49039107099756407137647"
   }
]
}
```

You can find more details on the [Sample Analytics Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-analytics/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-geospatial-listing-dataset">Sample Geospatial Dataset

This dataset consists of a single collection with information on shipwrecks. It has an additional index on the `coordinates` field (GeoJSON). This index is a Geospatial 2dsphere index. This dataset was created to help explore the possibility of geospatial queries within MongoDB.

The image below was created in [MongoDB Charts](https://www.mongodb.com/products/charts) and shows all of the shipwrecks on the eastern seaboard of North America.

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sample_data_shipwrecks_f15f4da1d5.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

You can find more details on the [Sample Geospatial Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-geospatial/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-mflix-listing-dataset">Sample Mflix Dataset

This dataset consists of five collections with information on movies, movie theatres, movie metadata, and user movie reviews and their ratings for specific movies. The data is a subset of the IMDB dataset. There are three additional indexes beyond `_id`: on the sessions collection on the `user_id` field, on the theatres collection on the `location.geo` field, and on the users collection on the `email` field. You can see this dataset used in this [MongoDB Charts tutorial](https://docs.mongodb.com/charts/saas/tutorial/movie-details/movie-details-tutorial-overview/).

The [Atlas Search Movies site](https://www.atlassearchmovies.com/) uses this data and [MongoDB's Atlas Search](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/atlas-search/) to provide a searchable movie catalog.

This dataset is the basis of our [Atlas Search tutorial](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/reference/atlas-search/tutorial/).

You can find more details on the [Sample Mflix Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-mflix/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-restaurants-listing-dataset">Sample Restaurants Dataset

This dataset consists of two collections with information on restaurants and neighbourhoods in New York. There are no additional indexes. This dataset is the basis of our [Geospatial tutorial](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/geospatial-tutorial/). The restaurant document only contains the location and the name for a given restaurant.

``` json
// restaurants collection document example
{
   location: {
      type: "Point",
      coordinates: [-73.856077, 40.848447]
   },
   name: "Morris Park Bake Shop"
}
```

In order to use the collections for geographical searching, we need to add an index, specifically a [2dsphere index](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/2dsphere/index.html). We can add this index and then search for all restaurants in a one-kilometer radius of a given location, with the results being sorted by those closest to those furthest away. The code below creates the index, then adds a helper variable to represent 1km, which our query then uses with the [$nearSphere](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/operator/query/nearSphere/index.html) criteria to return the list of restaurants within 1km of that location.

``` javascript
db.restaurants.createIndex({ location: "2dsphere" })
var ONE_KILOMETER = 1000
db.restaurants.find({ location: { $nearSphere: { $geometry: { type: "Point", coordinates: [ -73.93414657, 40.82302903 ] }, $maxDistance: ONE_KILOMETER } } })
```

You can find more details on the [Sample Restaurants Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-restaurants/).

### <a name="sql-sample-supply-store-listing-dataset">Sample Supply Store Dataset

This dataset consists of a single collection with information on mock sales data for a hypothetical office supplies company. There are no additional indexes. This is the second dataset used in the [MongoDB Chart tutorials](https://docs.mongodb.com/charts/saas/tutorial/order-data/order-data-tutorial-overview/).

The sales collection uses [the Extended Reference pattern](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-the-extended-reference-pattern) to hold both the items sold and their details as well as information on the customer who purchased these items. This pattern includes frequently accessed fields in the main document to improve performance at the cost of additional data duplication.

``` json
// sales collection document example
{
   "_id": {
      "$oid": "5bd761dcae323e45a93ccfe8"
   },
   "saleDate": {
      "$date": { "$numberLong": "1427144809506" }
   },
   "items": [
      {
         "name": "notepad",
         "tags": [ "office", "writing", "school" ],
         "price": { "$numberDecimal": "35.29" },
         "quantity": { "$numberInt": "2" }
      },
      {
         "name": "pens",
         "tags": [ "writing", "office", "school", "stationary" ],
         "price": { "$numberDecimal": "56.12" },
         "quantity": { "$numberInt": "5" }
      },
      {
         "name": "envelopes",
         "tags": [ "stationary", "office", "general" ],
         "price": { "$numberDecimal": "19.95" },
         "quantity": { "$numberInt": "8" }
      },
      {
         "name": "binder",
         "tags": [ "school", "general", "organization" ],
         "price": { "$numberDecimal": "14.16" },
         "quantity": { "$numberInt": "3" }
      }
   ],
   "storeLocation": "Denver",
   "customer": {
      "gender": "M",
      "age": { "$numberInt": "42" },
      "email": "cauho@witwuta.sv",
      "satisfaction": { "$numberInt": "4" }
   },
   "couponUsed": true,
   "purchaseMethod": "Online"
}
```

You can find more details on the [Sample Supply Store Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-supplies/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-training-listing-dataset">Sample Training Dataset

This dataset consists of nine collections with no additional indexes. It represents a selection of realistic data and is used in the [MongoDB private training courses](https://www.mongodb.com/products/training/private).

It includes a number of public, well-known data sources such as the [OpenFlights](https://openflights.org/data.html), [NYC's OpenData](https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/), and [NYC's Citibike Data](https://www.citibikenyc.com/system-data).

The routes collection uses [the Extended Reference pattern](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-the-extended-reference-pattern) to hold [OpenFlights](https://openflights.org/data.html) data on airline routes between airports. It references airline information in the `airline` sub document, which has details about the specific plane on the route. This is another example of improving performance at the cost of minor data duplication for fields that are likely to be frequently accessed.

``` json
// routes collection document example
{
   "_id": {
      "$oid": "56e9b39b732b6122f877fa5c"
   },
   "airline": {
         "alias": "2G",
         "iata": "CRG",
         "id": 1654,
         "name": "Cargoitalia"
   },
   "airplane": "A81",
   "codeshare": "",
   "dst_airport": "OVB",
   "src_airport": "BTK",
   "stops": 0
}
```

You can find more details on the [Sample Training Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-training/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-weather-listing-datase">Sample Weather Dataset

This dataset consists of a single collection with no additional indexes. It represents detailed weather reports from locations across the world. It holds geospatial data on the locations in the form of legacy coordinate pairs.

You can find more details on the [Sample Weather Documentation page](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/sample-weather/).

If you have ideas or suggestions for new datasets, we are always interested. Let us know on the [developer community website](https://community.mongodb.com/).

### <a name="sql-atlas-sample-data-local-installation">Downloading the Dataset for Use on Your Local Machine

It is also possible to download and explore these datasets on your own local machine. You can download the complete sample dataset via the wget command:

``` shell
wget https://atlas-education.s3.amazonaws.com/sampledata.archive
```

Note: You can also use the curl command:

``` shell
curl https://atlas-education.s3.amazonaws.com/sampledata.archive -o sampledata.archive
```

You should check you are running a local `mongod` instance or you should start a new `mongod` instance at this point. This `mongod` will be used in conjunction with `mongorestore` to unpack and host a local copy of the sample dataset. You can find more details on [starting mongod instances on this documentation page](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/manage-mongodb-processes/).

This section assumes that you're connecting to a relatively straightforward setup, with a default authentication database and some authentication set up. (You should *always* [create some users](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/create-users/) for authentication!)

If you don't provide any connection details to `mongorestore`, it will attempt to connect to MongoDB on your local machine, on port 27017 (which is MongoDB's default). This is the same as providing `--host localhost:27017`.

``` bash
mongorestore --archive=sampledata.archive
```

You can use a variety of tools to view your documents. You can use [MongoDB Compass](https://docs.mongodb.com/compass/master/connect#connect), [the CLI](https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/mongo/#start-the-mongo-shell-and-connect-to-mongodb), or the [MongoDB Visual Studio Code (VSCode) plugin](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mongodb.mongodb-vscode) to interact with the documents in your collections. You can find out how to use [MongoDB Playground for VSCode](https://docs.mongodb.com/mongodb-vscode/playgrounds) and integrate MongoDB into a Visual Studio Code environment.

If you find the sample data useful for building or helpful, let us know on the [community forums](https://developer.mongodb.com/community/forums/)!

## <a name="sql-atlas-sample-data-wrap-up">Wrap Up

These datasets offer a wide selection of data that you can use to both explore MongoDB's features and prototype your next project without having to worry about where you'll find the data.

Check out the documentation on [Load Sample Data](https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/sample-data/) to learn more on these datasets and load it into your Atlas Cluster today to start exploring it!

To learn more about schema patterns and MongoDB, please check out our blog series [Building with Patterns](https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-a-summary) and the free MongoDB University Course [MongoDB Data Modeling Path](https://learn.mongodb.com/learn/learning-path/data-modeling-for-mongodb) to level up your schema design skills.

>If you have questions, please head to our [developer community website](https://community.mongodb.com/) where the MongoDB engineers and the MongoDB community will help you build your next big idea with MongoDB.

Explaining the MongoDB Atlas Sample Data and diving into its various datasets

The MongoDB Atlas Sample Datasets

Julianna Chen

Curriculum Engineer



<div class="introduction">

## Introduction

As part of the MongoDB for Academia program, we are pleased to announce the publication of a new course, Introduction to Modern Databases, and related teaching materials.

The course materials are designed for the use of educators teaching MongoDB in universities, colleges, technical bootcamps, or other learning programs.

In this article, we describe why we've created this course, its structure and content, and how educators can use this material to support hands-on learning with the MongoDB Web Shell.

## Table of Contents

- [Course Format](#sql-course-format)
- [Why Create This Course?](#sql-why-create-this-course)
- [Course Outline](#sql-course-outline)
- [Course Lessons](#sql-course-lessons)
- [What is in a Lesson](#sql-what-is-in-a-lesson)
- [Using the MongoDB Web Shell](#sql-using-mongodb-web-shell)
- [What is MongoDB for Academia?](#sql-what-mongodb-academia)
- [Course Materials and Getting Involved in the MongoDB for Academia Program](#sql-course-materials-getting-involved)

## <a name="sql-course-format">Course Format

Introduction to Modern Databases has been designed to cover the A-Z of MongoDB for educators.

The course consists of 22 lessons in slide format. Educators are welcome to teach the entire course or select individual lessons and/or slides as needed.

Quiz questions with explained answers and instructions for hands-on exercises are included on slides interspersed throughout.

The hands-on activities use the browser-based MongoDB Web Shell, an environment that runs on servers hosted by MongoDB.

This means the only technical requirement for these activities is Internet access and a web browser.

The materials are freely available for non-commercial use and are licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).

## <a name="sql-why-create-this-course">Why Create This Course?

We created this course in response to requests from the educational community for support bridging the gap in teaching materials for MongoDB.

We received many requests from the academic community for teaching materials on document databases, MongoDB's features, and how to model schemas using the document model.

We hope this material will be a valuable resource for educators teaching with MongoDB in a variety of contexts, and their learners.

## <a name="sql-course-outline">Course Outline

The course compares and contrasts relational and non-relational databases, outlines the architecture of MongoDB, and details how to model data in MongoDB. The included quizzes and hands-on exercises support active learning and retention of key concepts and skills.

This material can support a wide variety of instructional objectives, including learning best practices for querying data and structuring data models in MongoDB, and using features like transactions and aggregations.

## <a name="sql-course-lessons">Course Lessons

The course consists of 22 lessons across a wide range of MongoDB topics.

The lessons can be taught individually or as part of a wider selection of lessons from the course.

The lessons are as follows:

-   What is a modern general purpose database?
-   SQL and MQL
-   Non-relational databases
-   Querying in SQL and in MQL
-   When to use SQL and when to use MQL
-   Documents and MongoDB
-   MongoDB is a data platform
-   MongoDB architecture
-   MongoDB Atlas
-   The MongoDB Query Language (MQL)
-   Querying complex data with MQL
-   Querying data with operators and compound conditions
-   Inserting and updating data in MongoDB
-   Deleting data in MongoDB
-   The MongoDB aggregation framework
-   Querying data in MongoDB with the aggregation framework
-   Data modeling and schema design patterns
-   Sharding in MongoDB
-   Indexing in MongoDB
-   Transactions in MongoDB
-   Change streams in MongoDB
-   Drivers, connectors, and the wider ecosystem

## <a name="what-is-in-a-lesson">What is in a Lesson

Each lesson covers the specified topic and includes a number of quizzes designed to assess the material presented.

Several lessons provide hands-on examples suitable for students to follow themselves or for the educator to present in a live-coding fashion to the class.

This provides a command line interface similar to the Mongo Shell but which you interact with through a standard web browser.

<figure>
<img src="https://mongodb-devhub-cms.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/old_images/article/introduction-to-modern-databases-mongodb-academia/mongodb-web-shell.png" class="align-center" />
</figure>

## <a name="sql-using-mongodb-web-shell">Using the MongoDB Web Shell

The [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest) is ideal for use in the hands-on exercise portions of Introduction to Modern Databases or anytime a web browser-accessible MongoDB environment is needed.

The MongoDB Web Shell provides a command line interface similar to the Mongo Shell but which you interact with through a standard web browser.

Let us walk through a small exercise using the [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest):

-   First, open another tab in your web browser and navigate to the [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest).
-   Now for our exercise, let's create a collection for cow documents and insert 10 new cow documents into the collection. We will include a name field and a field with a varying value of 'milk'.

``` javascript
for(c=0;c<10;c++) {
    db.cows.insertOne( { name: "daisy", milk: c } )
}
```

-   Let's now use the follow query in the same tab with the [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest) to find all the cow documents where the value for milk is greater than eight.

``` javascript
db.cows.find( { milk: { $gt: 8 } } )
```

-   The output in the [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest) will be similar to the following but with a different ObjectId.

``` json
{ "_id": ObjectId(5f2aefa8fde88235b959f0b1e), "name" : "daisy", "milk" : 9 }
```

-   Then let's show that we can perform another CRUD operation, update, and let's change the name of the cow to 'rose' and change the value of milk to 10 for that cow.

``` javascript
db.cows.updateOne( { milk: 9 }, { $set: { name: "rose" }, $inc: { milk: 1 } } )
```

-   We can query on the name of the cow to see the results of the update operation.

``` javascript
db.cows.find( { name: "rose" } )
```

This example gives only a small taste of what you can do with the [MongoDB Web Shell](https://mws.mongodb.com/?version=latest).

## <a name="sql-what-mongodb-academia">What is MongoDB for Academia?

MongoDB for Academia is our program to support educators and students.

The program offers educational content, resources, and community for teaching and learning MongoDB, whether in colleges and universities, technical bootcamps, online learning courses, high schools, or other educational programs.

For more information on MongoDB for Academia's free resources and support for educators and students, visit the [MongoDB for Academia website](https://developer.mongodb.com/academia/).

## <a name="sql-course-materials-getting-involved">Course Materials and Getting Involved in the MongoDB for Academia Program

All of the materials for Introduction to Modern Databases can [be downloaded here](https://www.mongodb.com/collateral/academia/imdb).

If you also want to get involved and learn more about the MongoDB Academia program, you can join the email list at <academia@mongodb.com> and join [our community forums](https://developer.mongodb.com/community/forums/c/academia/34).


Introduction to Modern Databases, a new free course with materials and resources for educators.

Eoin Brazil

Content by Eoin Brazil

The MongoDB Atlas Sample Datasets

MongoDB Academia - Introduction to Modern Databases