db.collection.renameCollection()

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Definition

Behavior
Example

Definition

db.collection.renameCollection(target, dropTarget)

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 renameCollection command.

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

For the legacy mongo shell documentation, refer to the documentation for the corresponding MongoDB Server release:

mongo shell v4.4

Renames a collection. Provides a wrapper for the renameCollection database command.

Parameter	Type	Description
`target`	string	The new name of the collection. Enclose the string in quotes. See Naming Restrictions.
`dropTarget`	boolean	Optional. If `true`, `mongod` drops the `target` of `renameCollection` prior to renaming the collection. The default value is `false`.

Behavior

The db.collection.renameCollection() method operates within a collection by changing the metadata associated with a given collection.

Refer to the documentation renameCollection for additional warnings and messages.

Warning

The db.collection.renameCollection() method and renameCollection command will invalidate open cursors which interrupts queries that are currently returning data.

For Change Streams, the db.collection.renameCollection() method and renameCollection command create an invalidate for any existing Change Streams opened on the source or target collection.

The method has the following limitations:
- db.collection.renameCollection() cannot move a collection between databases. Use renameCollection for these rename operations.
- You cannot rename views.
- db.collection.renameCollection() is not supported on time series collections.
- You cannot rename a collection to itself. If you try to rename a collection to itself an IllegalOperation error is thrown.

Resource Locking in Sharded Clusters

Changed in version 5.0.

When renaming a sharded or unsharded collection in a sharded cluster, the source and target collections are exclusively locked on every shard. Subsequent operations on the source and target collections must wait until the rename operation completes.

For more information on locking in MongoDB, see FAQ: Concurrency.

Resource Locking in Replica Sets

Changed in version 4.2.

renameCollection() obtains an exclusive lock on the source and target collections for the duration of the operation. All subsequent operations on the collections must wait until renameCollection() completes. Prior to MongoDB 4.2, renaming a collection within the same database with renameCollection required obtaining an exclusive database lock.

Interaction with `mongodump`

A mongodump started with --oplog fails if a client issues db.collection.renameCollection() during the dump process. See mongodump.--oplog for more information.

Example

Call the db.collection.renameCollection() method on a collection object. For example:

db.rrecord.renameCollection("record")

This operation will rename the rrecord collection to record. If the target name (i.e. record) is the name of an existing collection, then the operation will fail.

Back

db.collection.remove()

db.collection.replaceOne()