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Write Data to MongoDB

Bulk Write Operations

On this page

  • Overview
  • Sample Data
  • Bulk Operations
  • Example
  • Modify Bulk Write Behavior
  • Return Value
  • Additional Information
  • API Documentation

Overview

In this guide, you can learn how to perform multiple write operations in a single database call by using bulk write operations.

Consider a scenario in which you want to insert a document into a collection, update multiple other documents, then delete a document. If you use individual methods, each operation requires its own database call. Instead, you can use a bulk operation to reduce the number of calls to the database.

Sample Data

The examples in this guide use the restaurants collection in the sample_restaurants database from the Atlas sample datasets. To access this collection from your PHP application, instantiate a MongoDB\Client that connects to an Atlas cluster and assign the following value to your $collection variable:

$collection = $client->sample_restaurants->restaurants;

To learn how to create a free MongoDB Atlas cluster and load the sample datasets, see the Get Started with Atlas guide.

Bulk Operations

To run a bulk write operation, pass an array of write operations to the MongoDB\Collection::bulkWrite() method. Use the following syntax to specify the write operations:

[
    [ 'deleteMany' => [ $filter ] ],
    [ 'deleteOne'  => [ $filter ] ],
    [ 'insertOne'  => [ $document ] ],
    [ 'replaceOne' => [ $filter, $replacement, $options ] ],
    [ 'updateMany' => [ $filter, $update, $options ] ],
    [ 'updateOne'  => [ $filter, $update, $options ] ],
]

Tip

For more information about delete, insert, replace, and update operations, see the Write operation guides.

When you call the bulkWrite() method, the library automatically runs the write operations in the order they're specified in the array. To learn how to instruct bulkWrite() to run the write operations in an arbitrary order, see the Modify Bulk Write Behavior section.

Example

This example runs the following write operations on the restaurants collection:

  • Insert operation to insert a document in which the name value is 'Mongo's Deli'

  • Update operation to update the cuisine field of a document in which the name value is 'Mongo's Deli'

  • Delete operation to delete all documents in which the borough value is 'Manhattan'

$result = $collection->bulkWrite(
    [
        [
            'insertOne' => [
                ['name' => 'Mongo\'s Deli'], 
                ['cuisine' => 'Sandwiches'], 
                ['borough' => 'Manhattan'], 
                ['restaurant_id' => '1234'], 
            ],
        ],
        [
            'updateOne' => [
                ['name' => 'Mongo\'s Deli'], 
                ['$set' => ['cuisine' => 'Sandwiches and Salads']],
            ],
        ],
        [
            'deleteMany' => [
                ['borough' => 'Manhattan'],
            ],
        ],
    ]
);

Modify Bulk Write Behavior

You can modify the behavior of the MongoDB\Collection::bulkWrite() method by passing an array that specifies option values as a parameter. The following table describes the options you can set in the array:

Option
Description
bypassDocumentValidation
Specifies whether the operation bypasses document validation. This lets you modify documents that don't meet the schema validation requirements, if any exist. For more information about schema validation, see Schema Validation in the MongoDB Server manual.
Defaults to false.
codec
Sets the codec to use for encoding or decoding documents. Bulk writes use the codec for insertOne() and replaceOne() operations. For more information, see the Codecs guide.
writeConcern
Sets the write concern for the operation. For more information, see Write Concern in the MongoDB Server manual.
let
Specifies a document with a list of values to improve operation readability. Values must be constant or closed expressions that don't reference document fields. For more information, see the let statement in the MongoDB Server manual.
ordered
If set to true: when a single write fails, the operation stops without performing the remaining writes and throws an exception.
If set to false: when a single write fails, the operation continues to attempt the remaining write operations, if any, then throws an exception.
Defaults to true.
comment
Attaches a comment to the operation. For more information, see the insert command fields guide in the MongoDB Server manual.
session
Specifies the client session to associate with the operation.

The following example calls the bulkWrite() method to perform an insert and delete operation and sets the ordered option to false:

$result = $collection->bulkWrite(
    [
        [
            'insertOne' => [
                ['name' => 'Mongo\'s Pizza'], 
                ['cuisine' => 'Italian'], 
                ['borough' => 'Queens'], 
                ['restaurant_id' => '5678'], 
            ],
        ],
        [
            'deleteOne' => [
                ['restaurant_id' => '5678'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
    ['ordered' => false]
);

If the library runs the insert operation first, one document is deleted. If it runs the delete operation first, no documents are deleted.

Note

Unordered bulk operations do not guarantee order of execution. The order can differ from the way you list them to optimize the runtime.

Return Value

The MongoDB\Collection::bulkWrite() method returns a MongoDB\BulkWriteResult object. This class contains the following member functions:

Function
Description
getDeletedCount()
Returns the number of documents deleted, if any.
getInsertedCount()
Returns the number of documents inserted, if any.
getInsertedIds()
Returns a map of _id field values for inserted documents, if any.
getMatchedCount()
Returns the number of documents matched during update and replace operations, if applicable.
getModifiedCount()
Returns the number of documents modified, if any.
getUpsertedCount()
Returns the number of documents upserted, if any.
getUpsertedIds()
Returns a map of _id field values for upserted documents, if any.
isAcknowledged()
Returns a boolean indicating whether the bulk operation was acknowledged.

Additional Information

To learn how to perform individual write operations, see the following guides:

API Documentation

To learn more about any of the methods or types discussed in this guide, see the following API documentation:

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