Docs Menu
Docs Home
/
MongoDB Manual
/
Reference
/
Operators
/
Query and Projection Operators
/
Comparison Query Operators

$ne

On this page

  • Definition
  • Compatibility
  • Syntax
  • Examples

Definition

$ne

$ne selects the documents where the value of the specified field is not equal to the specified value. This includes documents that do not contain the specified field.

For comparison of different BSON type values, see the specified BSON comparison order.

Compatibility

You can use $ne for deployments hosted in the following environments:

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

Syntax

The $ne operator has the following form:

{ field: { $ne: value } }

Examples

The following examples use the inventory collection. Create the collection:

db.inventory.insertMany( [
   {
      "item": "nuts", "quantity": 30,
      "carrier": { "name": "Shipit", "fee": 3 }
   },
   {
      "item": "bolts", "quantity": 50,
      "carrier": { "name": "Shipit", "fee": 4 }
   },
   {
      "item": "washers", "quantity": 10,
      "carrier": { "name": "Shipit", "fee": 1 }
   }
] )

Match Document Fields

Select all documents in the inventory collection where quantity is not equal to 20:

db.inventory.find( { quantity: { $ne: 20 } } )

The query will also select documents that do not have the quantity field.

Example output:

{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba667dfe687fce2f042420"),
  item: 'nuts',
  quantity: 30,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 3 }
},
{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba667dfe687fce2f042421"),
  item: 'bolts',
  quantity: 50,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 4 }
},
{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba667dfe687fce2f042422"),
  item: 'washers',
  quantity: 10,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 1 }
}

Perform an Update Based on Embedded Document Fields

The following example sets the price field based on a $ne comparison against a field in an embedded document.

db.inventory.updateMany( { "carrier.fee": { $ne: 1 } }, { $set: { "price": 9.99 } } )

Example output:

{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba66e2fe687fce2f042423"),
  item: 'nuts',
  quantity: 30,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 3 },
  price: 9.99
},
{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba66e2fe687fce2f042424"),
  item: 'bolts',
  quantity: 50,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 4 },
  price: 9.99
},
{
  _id: ObjectId("61ba66e2fe687fce2f042425"),
  item: 'washers',
  quantity: 10,
  carrier: { name: 'Shipit', fee: 1 }
}

This updateMany() operation searches for an embedded document, carrier, with a subfield named fee. It sets { price: 9.99 } in each document where fee has a value that does not equal 1 or where the fee subfield does not exist.

The inequality operator $ne is not very selective since it often matches a large portion of the index. As a result, in many cases, a $ne query with an index may perform no better than a $ne query that must scan all documents in a collection. See also Query Selectivity.

Tip

See also:

Back

$lte