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2dsphere Indexes

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  • Use Cases
  • Get Started
  • Details
  • sparse Property
  • Compound 2dsphere Indexes
  • Learn More

2dsphere indexes support geospatial queries on an earth-like sphere. For example, 2dsphere indexes can:

  • Determine points within a specified area.

  • Calculate proximity to a specified point.

  • Return exact matches on coordinate queries.

The values of the indexed field must be either:

  • GeoJSON objects

  • Legacy coordinate pairs

    For legacy coordinate pairs, the 2dsphere index converts the data to GeoJSON points.

To create a 2dsphere index, specify the string 2dsphere as the index type:

db.<collection>.createIndex( { <location field> : "2dsphere" } )

Note

When creating a a 2dsphere index, the first value, or longitude, must be between -180 and 180, inclusive. The second value, or latitude, must be between -90 and 90, inclusive. These coordinates "wrap" around the sphere. For example, -179.9 and +179.9 are near neighbors.

Use 2dsphere indexes to query and perform calculations on location data where the data points appear on Earth, or another spherical surface. For example:

  • A food delivery application uses 2dsphere indexes to support searches for nearby restaurants.

  • A route planning application uses 2dsphere indexes to calculate the shortest distance between rest stops.

  • A city planner uses 2dsphere indexes to find parks that exist within city limits.

To learn how to create and query 2dsphere indexes, see:

2dsphere indexes are always sparse and have special behaviors when created as part of a compound index.

2dsphere indexes are always sparse. When you create a 2dsphere index, MongoDB ignores the sparse option.

If an existing or newly inserted document does not contain a 2dsphere index field (or the field is null or an empty array), MongoDB does not add an entry for the document to the index.

  • For a compound index that includes a 2dsphere index key along with keys of other types, only the 2dsphere index field determines whether the index references a document.

  • A compound 2dsphere index can reference multiple location and non-location fields. In contrast, a compound 2d index can only reference one location field and one other field.

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