Insert a Document

You can insert a single document into a collection using the insertOne() method on a MongoCollection object. To insert a document, construct a Document object that contains the fields and values that you want to store. If you call the insertOne() method on a collection that does not exist yet, the server automatically creates it for you.

Upon a successful insertion, insertOne() returns an instance of InsertOneResult. You can retrieve information such as the _id field of the document you inserted by calling the getInsertedId() method on the InsertOneResult instance.

If your insert operation fails, the driver raises an exception. For more information on the types of exceptions raised under specific conditions, see the API documentation for insertOne(), linked at the bottom of this page.

Example

The following snippet inserts a single document into the movies collection.

Note

This example connects to an instance of MongoDB using a connection URI. To learn more about connecting to your MongoDB instance, see the connection guide.

// Inserts a sample document describing a movie by using the Java driver
package usage.examples;
import java.util.Arrays;
import org.bson.Document;
import org.bson.types.ObjectId;
import com.mongodb.MongoException;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoClient;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoClients;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoCollection;
import com.mongodb.client.MongoDatabase;
import com.mongodb.client.result.InsertOneResult;
public class InsertOne {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Replace the uri string with your MongoDB deployment's connection string
        String uri = "<connection string uri>";
        try (MongoClient mongoClient = MongoClients.create(uri)) {
            MongoDatabase database = mongoClient.getDatabase("sample_mflix");
            MongoCollection<Document> collection = database.getCollection("movies");
            try {
                // Inserts a sample document describing a movie into the collection
                InsertOneResult result = collection.insertOne(new Document()
                        .append("_id", new ObjectId())
                        .append("title", "Ski Bloopers")
                        .append("genres", Arrays.asList("Documentary", "Comedy")));
                // Prints the ID of the inserted document
                System.out.println("Success! Inserted document id: " + result.getInsertedId());
            
            // Prints a message if any exceptions occur during the operation
            } catch (MongoException me) {
                System.err.println("Unable to insert due to an error: " + me);
            }
        }
    }
}

When you run the example, you should see output that resembles the following with the inserted document's ObjectId in the value field:

Inserted document id: BsonObjectId{value=...}

Tip

Legacy API

If you are using the legacy API, see our FAQ page to learn what changes you need to make to this code example.

For additional information on the classes and methods mentioned on this page, see the following API Documentation:

Back

Insert

Insert Many