$nearSphere
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Definition
$nearSphere
Specifies a point for which a geospatial query returns the documents from nearest to farthest. MongoDB calculates distances for
$nearSphere
using spherical geometry.$nearSphere
requires a geospatial index:2dsphere index for location data defined as GeoJSON points
2d index for location data defined as legacy coordinate pairs. To use a 2d index on GeoJSON points, create the index on the
coordinates
field of the GeoJSON object.
The
$nearSphere
operator can specify either a GeoJSON point or legacy coordinate point.To specify a GeoJSON Point, use the following syntax:
{ $nearSphere: { $geometry: { type : "Point", coordinates : [ <longitude>, <latitude> ] }, $minDistance: <distance in meters>, $maxDistance: <distance in meters> } } The optional
$minDistance
limits the results to those documents that are at least the specified distance from the center point.The optional
$maxDistance
is available for either index.
To specify a point using legacy coordinates, use the following syntax:
{ $nearSphere: [ <x>, <y> ], $minDistance: <distance in radians>, $maxDistance: <distance in radians> } The optional
$minDistance
is available only if the query uses the 2dsphere index.$minDistance
limits the results to those documents that are at least the specified distance from the center point.The optional
$maxDistance
is available for either index.
If you use longitude and latitude for legacy coordinates, specify the longitude first, then latitude.
Behavior
Special Indexes Restriction
You cannot combine the $nearSphere
operator, which requires a
special geospatial index, with a
query operator or command that requires another special index. For
example you cannot combine $nearSphere
with the $text
query.
Sharded Collections
Starting in MongoDB 4.0, $nearSphere
queries are supported for
sharded collections.
In earlier MongoDB versions, $nearSphere
queries are not supported
for sharded collections; instead, for sharded clusters, you must use
the $geoNear
aggregation stage or the geoNear
command
(available in MongoDB 4.0 and earlier).
Sort Operation
The $nearSphere
operator sorts documents by distance.
If you use the
sort()
method in your query, MongoDB performs a second sort operation, re-ordering the matching documents. When querying large collections, this can negatively affect query performance.If the order of the documents is not important to you, consider using the
$geoWithin
operator instead, as it returns unsorted results.$nearSphere
is a Match Execution operator and is not permitted in aggregation pipelines.
Examples
Specify Center Point Using GeoJSON
Consider a collection places
that contains documents with a
location
field and has a 2dsphere index.
Then, the following example returns whose location
is at least
1000
meters from and at most 5000
meters from the specified
point, ordered from nearest to farthest:
db.places.find( { location: { $nearSphere: { $geometry: { type : "Point", coordinates : [ -73.9667, 40.78 ] }, $minDistance: 1000, $maxDistance: 5000 } } } )
Specify Center Point Using Legacy Coordinates
2d
Index
Consider a collection legacyPlaces
that contains documents with
legacy coordinates pairs in the location
field and has a 2d index.
Then, the following example returns those documents whose location
is at most 0.10
radians from the specified point, ordered from
nearest to farthest:
db.legacyPlaces.find( { location : { $nearSphere : [ -73.9667, 40.78 ], $maxDistance: 0.10 } } )
2dsphere
Index
If the collection has a 2dsphere
index instead, you can also
specify the optional $minDistance
specification. For example,
the following example returns the documents whose location
is at
least 0.0004
radians from the specified point, ordered from nearest
to farthest:
db.legacyPlaces.find( { location : { $nearSphere : [ -73.9667, 40.78 ], $minDistance: 0.0004 } } )