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db.collection.findOneAndUpdate()

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  • Definition
  • Compatibility
  • Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Examples

Definition

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate( filter, update, options )

Important

mongosh Method

This page documents a mongosh method. This is not the documentation for database commands or language-specific drivers, such as Node.js.

For the database command, see the update command.

For MongoDB API drivers, refer to the language-specific MongoDB driver documentation.

Updates a single document based on the filter and sort criteria.

Returns:Returns the original document by default. Returns the updated document if returnNewDocument is set to true or returnDocument is set to after.

Compatibility

You can use db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() for deployments hosted in the following environments:

  • MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

Syntax

The findOneAndUpdate() method has the following form:

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate(
    <filter>,
    <update document or aggregation pipeline>,
    {
      writeConcern: <document>,
      projection: <document>,
      sort: <document>,
      maxTimeMS: <number>,
      upsert: <boolean>,
      returnDocument: <string>,
      returnNewDocument: <boolean>,
      collation: <document>,
      arrayFilters: [ <filterdocument1>, ... ]
    }
)

The findOneAndUpdate() method takes the following parameters:

Parameter
Type
Description
filter
document

The selection criteria for the update. The same query selectors as in the find() method are available.

To update the first document returned in the collection, specify an empty document { }.

If unspecified, defaults to an empty document.

If the query field is not a document, the operation returns an error.

If no document matches the filter, no document is updated.

update
document or array

The update document or an aggregation pipeline.

writeConcern
document

Optional. A document expressing the write concern. Omit to use the default write concern.

{ w: <value>, j: <boolean>, wtimeout: <number> }

Do not explicitly set the write concern for the operation if run in a transaction. To use write concern with transactions, see Transactions and Write Concern.

projection
document

Optional. A subset of fields to return.

To return all fields in the returned document, omit this parameter.

If the projection argument is not a document, the operation errors.

sort
document

Optional. Specifies a sorting order for the documents matched by the filter.

If the sort argument is not a document, the operation errors.

See cursor.sort().

maxTimeMS
number
Optional. Specifies a time limit in milliseconds within which the operation must complete within. Throws an error if the limit is exceeded.
upsert
boolean

Optional. When true, findOneAndUpdate() either:

  • Creates a new document if no documents match the filter. For more details see upsert behavior. Returns null after inserting the new document, unless returnNewDocument is true.

  • Updates a single document that matches the filter.

To avoid multiple upserts, ensure that the filter field(s) are uniquely indexed.

Defaults to false, which does not insert a new document when no match is found.

returnDocument
string

Optional. Starting in mongosh 0.13.2, returnDocument is an alternative for returnNewDocument. If both options are set, returnDocument takes precedence.

returnDocument: "before" returns the original document. returnDocument: "after" returns the updated document.

returnNewDocument
boolean

Optional. When true, returns the updated document instead of the original document.

Defaults to false.

collation
document

Optional.

Specifies the collation to use for the operation.

Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks.

The collation option has the following syntax:

collation: {
   locale: <string>,
   caseLevel: <boolean>,
   caseFirst: <string>,
   strength: <int>,
   numericOrdering: <boolean>,
   alternate: <string>,
   maxVariable: <string>,
   backwards: <boolean>
}

When specifying collation, the locale field is mandatory; all other collation fields are optional. For descriptions of the fields, see Collation Document.

If the collation is unspecified but the collection has a default collation (see db.createCollection()), the operation uses the collation specified for the collection.

If no collation is specified for the collection or for the operations, MongoDB uses the simple binary comparison used in prior versions for string comparisons.

You cannot specify multiple collations for an operation. For example, you cannot specify different collations per field, or if performing a find with a sort, you cannot use one collation for the find and another for the sort.

arrayFilters
array

Optional. An array of filter documents that determine which array elements to modify for an update operation on an array field.

In the update document, use the $[<identifier>] filtered positional operator to define an identifier, which you then reference in the array filter documents. You cannot have an array filter document for an identifier if the identifier is not included in the update document.

The <identifier> must begin with a lowercase letter and contain only alphanumeric characters.

You can include the same identifier multiple times in the update document; however, for each distinct identifier ($[identifier]) in the update document, you must specify exactly one corresponding array filter document. That is, you cannot specify multiple array filter documents for the same identifier. For example, if the update statement includes the identifier x (possibly multiple times), you cannot specify the following for arrayFilters that includes 2 separate filter documents for x:

// INVALID
[
  { "x.a": { $gt: 85 } },
  { "x.b": { $gt: 80 } }
]

However, you can specify compound conditions on the same identifier in a single filter document, such as in the following examples:

// Example 1
[
  { $or: [{"x.a": {$gt: 85}}, {"x.b": {$gt: 80}}] }
]
// Example 2
[
  { $and: [{"x.a": {$gt: 85}}, {"x.b": {$gt: 80}}] }
]
// Example 3
[
  { "x.a": { $gt: 85 }, "x.b": { $gt: 80 } }
]

For examples, see Array Update Operations with arrayFilters.

arrayFilters is not available for updates that use an aggregation pipeline.

Behavior

Document Match

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() updates the first matching document in the collection that matches the filter. If no document matches the filter, no document is updated.

The sort parameter can be used to influence which document is updated.

Projection

Important

Language Consistency

As part of making find() and findAndModify() projection consistent with aggregation's $project stage,

The projection parameter takes a document in the following form:

{ field1 : <value>, field2 : <value> ... }
Projection
Description
<field>: <1 or true>
Specifies the inclusion of a field. If you specify a non-zero integer for the projection value, the operation treats the value as true.
<field>: <0 or false>
Specifies the exclusion of a field.
"<field>.$": <1 or true>

Uses the $ array projection operator to return the first element that matches the query condition on the array field. If you specify a non-zero integer for the projection value, the operation treats the value as true.

Not available for views.

<field>: <array projection>

Uses the array projection operators ($elemMatch, $slice) to specify the array elements to include.

Not available for views.

<field>: <aggregation expression>

Specifies the value of the projected field.

With the use of aggregation expressions and syntax, including the use of literals and aggregation variables, you can project new fields or project existing fields with new values.

  • If you specify a non-numeric, non-boolean literal (such as a literal string or an array or an operator expression) for the projection value, the field is projected with the new value, for example:

    • { field: [ 1, 2, 3, "$someExistingField" ] }

    • { field: "New String Value" }

    • { field: { status: "Active", total: { $sum: "$existingArray" } } }

  • To project a literal value for a field, use the $literal aggregation expression, for example:

    • { field: { $literal: 5 } }

    • { field: { $literal: true } }

    • { field: { $literal: { fieldWithValue0: 0, fieldWithValue1: 1 } } }

Embedded Field Specification

For fields in an embedded documents, you can specify the field using either:

  • dot notation, for example "field.nestedfield": <value>

  • nested form, for example { field: { nestedfield: <value> } }

_id Field Projection

The _id field is included in the returned documents by default unless you explicitly specify _id: 0 in the projection to suppress the field.

Inclusion or Exclusion

A projection cannot contain both include and exclude specifications, with the exception of the _id field:

  • In projections that explicitly include fields, the _id field is the only field that you can explicitly exclude.

  • In projections that explicitly excludes fields, the _id field is the only field that you can explicitly include; however, the _id field is included by default.

For more information on projection, see also:

Sharded Collections

To use db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() on a sharded collection, the query filter must include an equality condition on the shard key.

Documents in a sharded collection can be missing the shard key fields. To target a document that is missing the shard key, you can use the null equality match in conjunction with another filter condition (such as on the _id field). For example:

{ _id: <value>, <shardkeyfield>: null } // _id of the document missing shard key

Shard Key Modification

You can update a document's shard key value unless the shard key field is the immutable _id field.

Warning

Documents in sharded collections can be missing the shard key fields. Take precaution to avoid accidentally removing the shard key when changing a document's shard key value.

To modify the existing shard key value with db.collection.findOneAndUpdate():

  • You must run on a mongos. Do not issue the operation directly on the shard.

  • You must run either in a transaction or as a retryable write.

  • You must include an equality filter on the full shard key.

Missing Shard Key

Documents in a sharded collection can be missing the shard key fields. To use db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() to set the document's missing shard key,

  • You must run on a mongos. Do not issue the operation directly on the shard.

  • You must run either in a transaction or as a retryable write if the new shard key value is not null.

  • You must include an equality filter on the full shard key.

Tip

Since a missing key value is returned as part of a null equality match, to avoid updating a null-valued key, include additional query conditions (such as on the _id field) as appropriate.

See also:

Transactions

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() can be used inside distributed transactions.

Important

In most cases, a distributed transaction incurs a greater performance cost over single document writes, and the availability of distributed transactions should not be a replacement for effective schema design. For many scenarios, the denormalized data model (embedded documents and arrays) will continue to be optimal for your data and use cases. That is, for many scenarios, modeling your data appropriately will minimize the need for distributed transactions.

For additional transactions usage considerations (such as runtime limit and oplog size limit), see also Production Considerations.

Upsert within Transactions

You can create collections and indexes inside a distributed transaction if the transaction is not a cross-shard write transaction.

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() with upsert: true can be run on an existing collection or a non-existing collection. If run on a non-existing collection, the operation creates the collection.

Tip

See also:

Create Collections and Indexes in a Transaction

Write Concerns and Transactions

Do not explicitly set the write concern for the operation if run in a transaction. To use write concern with transactions, see Transactions and Write Concern.

Oplog Entries

If a db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() operation successfully updates a document, the operation adds an entry on the oplog (operations log). If the operation fails or does not find a document to update, the operation does not add an entry on the oplog.

Examples

Update A Document

The grades collection contains documents similar to the following:

{ _id: 6305, name : "A. MacDyver", "assignment" : 5, "points" : 24 },
{ _id: 6308, name : "B. Batlock", "assignment" : 3, "points" : 22 },
{ _id: 6312, name : "M. Tagnum", "assignment" : 5, "points" : 30 },
{ _id: 6319, name : "R. Stiles", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 12 },
{ _id: 6322, name : "A. MacDyver", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 14 },
{ _id: 6234, name : "R. Stiles", "assignment" : 1, "points" : 10 }

The following operation finds the first document where name : R. Stiles and increments the score by 5:

db.grades.findOneAndUpdate(
   { "name" : "R. Stiles" },
   { $inc: { "points" : 5 } }
)

The operation returns the original document before the update:

{ _id: 6319, name: "R. Stiles", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 12 }

If returnNewDocument was true, the operation would return the updated document instead.

Sort And Update A Document

The grades collection contains documents similar to the following:

{ _id: 6305, name : "A. MacDyver", "assignment" : 5, "points" : 24 },
{ _id: 6308, name : "B. Batlock", "assignment" : 3, "points" : 22 },
{ _id: 6312, name : "M. Tagnum", "assignment" : 5, "points" : 30 },
{ _id: 6319, name : "R. Stiles", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 12 },
{ _id: 6322, name : "A. MacDyver", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 14 },
{ _id: 6234, name : "R. Stiles", "assignment" : 1, "points" : 10 }

The following operation updates a document where name : "A. MacDyver". The operation sorts the matching documents by points ascending to update the matching document with the least points.

db.grades.findOneAndUpdate(
   { "name" : "A. MacDyver" },
   { $inc : { "points" : 5 } },
   { sort : { "points" : 1 } }
)

The operation returns the original document before the update:

{ _id: 6322, name: "A. MacDyver", "assignment" : 2, "points" : 14 }

Project the Returned Document

The following operation uses projection to only display the _id, points, and assignment fields in the returned document:

db.grades.findOneAndUpdate(
   { "name" : "A. MacDyver" },
   { $inc : { "points" : 5 } },
   { sort : { "points" : 1 }, projection: { "assignment" : 1, "points" : 1 } }
)

The operation returns the original document with only the fields specified in the projection document and the _id field as it was not explicitly suppressed (_id: 0) in the projection document.

{ "_id" : 6322, "assignment" : 2, "points" : 14 }

Update Document with Time Limit

The following operation sets a 5ms time limit to complete the update:

try {
   db.grades.findOneAndUpdate(
      { "name" : "A. MacDyver" },
      { $inc : { "points" : 5 } },
      { sort: { "points" : 1 }, maxTimeMS : 5 };
   );
}
catch(e){
   print(e);
}

If the operation exceeds the time limit, it returns:

Error: findAndModifyFailed failed: { "ok" : 0, "errmsg" : "operation exceeded time limit", "code" : 50 }

Update Document with Upsert

The following operation uses the upsert field to insert the update document if nothing matches the filter:

try {
db.grades.findOneAndUpdate(
   { "name" : "A.B. Abracus" },
   { $set: { "name" : "A.B. Abracus", "assignment" : 5}, $inc : { "points" : 5 } },
   { sort: { "points" : 1 }, upsert:true, returnNewDocument : true }
);
}
catch (e){
   print(e);
}

The operation returns the following:

{
   "_id" : ObjectId("5789249f1c49e39a8adc479a"),
   "name" : "A.B. Abracus",
   "assignment" : 5,
   "points" : 5
}

If returnNewDocument was false, the operation would return null as there is no original document to return.

Specify Collation

Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks.

A collection myColl has the following documents:

{ _id: 1, category: "café", status: "A" }
{ _id: 2, category: "cafe", status: "a" }
{ _id: 3, category: "cafE", status: "a" }

The following operation includes the collation option:

db.myColl.findOneAndUpdate(
   { category: "cafe" },
   { $set: { status: "Updated" } },
   { collation: { locale: "fr", strength: 1 } }
);

The operation returns the following document:

{ "_id" : 1, "category" : "café", "status" : "A" }

Array Update Operations with arrayFilters

Note

arrayFilters is not available for updates that use an aggregation pipeline.

When updating an array field, you can specify arrayFilters that determine which array elements to update.

Update Elements Match arrayFilters Criteria

Note

arrayFilters is not available for updates that use an aggregation pipeline.

Create a collection students with the following documents:

db.students.insertMany( [
   { "_id" : 1, "grades" : [ 95, 92, 90 ] },
   { "_id" : 2, "grades" : [ 98, 100, 102 ] },
   { "_id" : 3, "grades" : [ 95, 110, 100 ] }
] )

To modify all elements that are greater than or equal to 100 in the grades array, use the filtered positional operator $[<identifier>] with the arrayFilters option in the db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() method:

db.students.findOneAndUpdate(
   { grades: { $gte: 100 } },
   { $set: { "grades.$[element]" : 100 } },
   { arrayFilters: [ { "element": { $gte: 100 } } ] }
)

The operation updates the grades field for a single document, and after the operation, the collection has the following documents:

{ "_id" : 1, "grades" : [ 95, 92, 90 ] }
{ "_id" : 2, "grades" : [ 98, 100, 100 ] }
{ "_id" : 3, "grades" : [ 95, 110, 100 ] }

Update Specific Elements of an Array of Documents

Note

arrayFilters is not available for updates that use an aggregation pipeline.

Create a collection students2 with the following documents:

db.students2.insertMany( [
   {
      "_id" : 1,
      "grades" : [
         { "grade" : 80, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 90, "std" : 4 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 85, "std" : 6 }
      ]
   },
   {
      "_id" : 2,
      "grades" : [
         { "grade" : 90, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
         { "grade" : 87, "mean" : 90, "std" : 3 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 85, "std" : 4 }
      ]
   }
] )

The following operation finds a document where the _id field equals 1 and uses the filtered positional operator $[<identifier>] with the arrayFilters to modify the mean for all elements in the grades array where the grade is greater than or equal to 85.

db.students2.findOneAndUpdate(
   { _id : 1 },
   { $set: { "grades.$[elem].mean" : 100 } },
   { arrayFilters: [ { "elem.grade": { $gte: 85 } } ] }
)

The operation updates the grades field for a single document, and after the operation, the collection has the following documents:

{
   "_id" : 1,
   "grades" : [
      { "grade" : 80, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
      { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 100, "std" : 4 },
      { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 100, "std" : 6 }
    ]
}
{
   "_id" : 2,
   "grades" : [
      { "grade" : 90, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
      { "grade" : 87, "mean" : 90, "std" : 3 },
      { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 85, "std" : 4 }
   ]
}

Use an Aggregation Pipeline for Updates

db.collection.findOneAndUpdate() can accept an aggregation pipeline for the update. The pipeline can consist of the following stages:

Using the aggregation pipeline allows for a more expressive update statement, such as expressing conditional updates based on current field values or updating one field using the value of another field(s).

For example, create a collection students2 with the following documents:

db.students2.insertMany( [
   {
      "_id" : 1,
      "grades" : [
         { "grade" : 80, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 90, "std" : 4 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 85, "std" : 6 }
      ]
   },
   {
      "_id" : 2,
      "grades" : [
         { "grade" : 90, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 },
         { "grade" : 87, "mean" : 90, "std" : 3 },
         { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 85, "std" : 4 }
      ]
   }
] )

The following operation finds a document where the _id field equals 1 and uses an aggregation pipeline to calculate a new field total from the grades field:

db.students2.findOneAndUpdate(
   { _id : 1 },
   [ { $set: { "total" : { $sum: "$grades.grade" } } } ],  // The $set stage is an alias for ``$addFields`` stage
   { returnNewDocument: true }
)

Note

The $set used in the pipeline refers to the aggregation stage $set and not the update operator $set.

The operation returns the updated document :

{
  "_id" : 1,
  "grades" : [ { "grade" : 80, "mean" : 75, "std" : 6 }, { "grade" : 85, "mean" : 90, "std" : 4 }, { "grade" : 85, "mean" :85, "std" : 6 } ],
  "total" : 250
}

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