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db.collection.createSearchIndex()

On this page

  • Definition
  • Syntax
  • Command Fields
  • Search Index Definition Syntax
  • Vector Search Index Definition Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Access Control
  • Examples
  • Create a Search Index on All Fields
  • Create a Search Index with a Language Analyzer
  • Create a Search Index with the Default Name
  • Create a Vector Search Index
  • Learn More
db.collection.createSearchIndex()

New in version 7.0: (Also available starting in 6.0.7)

Creates an Atlas Search index or Vector Search index on a specified collection.

Important

This command can only be run on a deployment hosted on MongoDB Atlas, and is not supported in serverless instances.

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 createSearchIndexes command.

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

Command syntax:

db.<collection>.createSearchIndex(
<name>,
<type>,
{
<definition>
}
)

createSearchIndex() takes these fields:

Field
Type
Necessity
Description
name
string
Optional

Name of the search index to create.

You cannot create multiple indexes with the same name on a single collection.

If you do not specify a name, the index is named default.

type
string
Optional

Type of search index to create. You can specify either:

  • search

  • vectorSearch

If you omit the type field, the index type is search.

definition
document
Required

Document describing the index to create. The definition syntax depends on whether you create a standard search index or a Vector Search index. For the definition syntax, see:

The search index definition takes the following fields:

{
analyzer: "<analyzer-for-index>",
searchAnalyzer: "<analyzer-for-query>",
mappings: {
dynamic: <boolean>,
fields: { <field-definition> }
},
analyzers: [ <custom-analyzer> ],
storedSource: <boolean> | {
<stored-source-definition>
},
synonyms: [ {
name: "<synonym-mapping-name>",
source: {
collection: "<source-collection-name>"
},
analyzer: "<synonym-mapping-analyzer>"
} ]
}
Field
Type
Necessity
Description
analyzer
string
Optional

Specifies the analyzer to apply to string fields when indexing.

If you omit this field, the index uses the standard analyzer.

searchAnalyzer
string
Optional

Specifies the analyzer to apply to query text before the text is searched.

If you omit this field, the index uses the same analyzer specified in the analyzer field.

If you omit both the searchAnalyzer and the analyzer fields, the index uses the standard analyzer.

mappings
object
Optional
Specifies how to index fields on different paths for this index.
mappings.dynamic
boolean
Optional

Enables or disables dynamic field mapping for this index.

If set to true, the index contains all fields containing supported data types.

If set to false, you must specify individual fields to index using mappings.fields.

If omitted, defaults to false.

mappings.fields
document
Conditional

Required only if dynamic mapping is disabled.

Specifies the fields to index. To learn more, see Define Field Mappings.

analyzers
array
Optional
Specifies the Custom Analyzers to use in this index.
storedSource
Optional

Specifies document fields to store for queries performed using the returnedStoredSource option.

You can store fields of all Data Types on Atlas Search. The storedSource value can be one of these:

  • true, to store all fields

  • false, to not store any fields

  • An object that specifies the fields to include or exclude from storage

If omitted, defaults to false.

To learn more, see Define Stored Source Fields in Your Atlas Search Index.

synonyms
Optional

Specifies synonym mappings to use in your index. Configuring synonyms allows you to index and search for words that have the same or a similar meaning.

To learn more, see Define Synonym Mappings in Your Atlas Search Index.

The vector search index definition takes the following fields:

{
"fields": [
{
"type": "vector" | "filter",
"path": "<field-to-index>",
"numDimensions": <number-of-dimensions>,
"similarity": "euclidean" | "cosine" | "dotProduct"
}
]
}

For explanations of vector search index definition fields, see How to Index Fields for Vector Search.

createSearchIndex() triggers an index build. There may be a delay between when you receive a response from the command and when the index is ready.

To see the status of your search indexes, use the $listSearchIndexes aggregation stage.

If your deployment enforces access control, the user running createSearchIndex() must have the createSearchIndexes privilege action on the database or collection:

{
resource: {
db : <database>,
collection: <collection>
},
actions: [ "createSearchIndexes" ]
}

The built-in readWrite role provides the createSearchIndexes privilege. The following example grants accountUser01 the readWrite role on the products database:

db.grantRolesToUser(
"accountUser01",
[ { role: "readWrite", db: "products" } ]
)

The following example creates a search index named searchIndex01 on the movies collection:

db.movies.createSearchIndex(
"searchIndex01",
{ mappings: { dynamic: true } }
)

The index definition specifies mappings: { dynamic: true }, which means that the index contains all fields in the collection that have supported data types.

A language analyzer introduces stop-words, which are words that are not significant enough to be indexed.

The following example creates a search index named frenchIndex01 on the cars collection, and specifies the lucene.french analyzer on the fr field:

db.cars.createSearchIndex(
"frenchIndex01",
{
mappings: {
fields: {
subject: {
fields: {
fr: {
analyzer: "lucene.french",
type: "string"
}
},
type: "document"
}
}
}
}
)

To learn more about language analyzers, see Language Analyzers.

The following createSearchIndex() method only specifies the index definition and omits the index name. The command creates a search index with the name default on the food collection:

db.food.createSearchIndex(
{
mappings: {
fields: {
title: {
type: "string"
}
}
}
}
)

The following example creates a vector search index named vectorSearchIndex01 on the movies collection:

db.movies.createSearchIndex(
"vectorSearchIndex01",
"vectorSearch",
{
fields: [
{
type: "vector",
numDimensions: 1,
path: "genre",
similarity: "cosine"
}
]
}
)

The vector search index contains one dimension and indexes the genre field.

Back

Atlas Search Index