MongoDB\Database::createCollection()

Definition

MongoDB\Database::createCollection()

Explicitly creates a collection.

function createCollection(
    string $collectionName,
    array $options = []
): void

MongoDB creates collections implicitly when you first reference the collection in a command, such as when inserting a document into a new collection. You may also explicitly create a collection with specific options using the MongoDB\Database::createCollection() method, or using db.createCollection() in the MongoDB shell.

Explicitly creating collections enables you to create capped collections, specify document validation criteria, or configure your storage engine or indexing options.

Parameters

$collectionName : string

The name of the collection to create.

$options : array

An array specifying the desired options.

Note

Not all options are available on all versions of MongoDB. Refer to the create command reference in the MongoDB manual for compatibility considerations.

Name	Type	Description
capped	boolean	To create a capped collection, specify true. If you specify true, you must also set a maximum size in the size option.
changeStreamPreAndPostImages	document	Used to configure support for pre- and post-images in change streams. See the create command documentation for more information. This option is available since MongoDB 6.0 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.13.
clusteredIndex	document	A clustered index specification. See Clustered Collections or the create command documentation for more information. This option is available since MongoDB 5.3 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.13.
collation	array|object	Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks. When specifying collation, the locale field is mandatory; all other collation fields are optional. For descriptions of the fields, see Collation Document.
comment	mixed	Enables users to specify an arbitrary comment to help trace the operation through the database profiler, currentOp output, and logs. This option is available since MongoDB 4.4 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.13.
encryptedFields	document	A document describing encrypted fields for queryable encryption. If omitted, the encryptedFieldsMap option within the autoEncryption driver option will be consulted. See Field Encryption and Queryability in the MongoDB manual for more information. This option is available since MongoDB 7.0 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.13.
expireAfterSeconds	integer	Used to automatically delete documents in time series collections. See the create command documentation for more information. This option is available since MongoDB 5.0 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.9.
indexOptionDefaults	array|object	Allows users to specify a default configuration for indexes when creating a collection. The indexOptionDefaults option accepts a storageEngine document, which should take the following form: { <storage-engine-name>: <options> } Storage engine configurations specified when creating indexes are validated and logged to the oplog during replication to support replica sets with members that use different storage engines.
max	integer	The maximum number of documents allowed in the capped collection. The size option takes precedence over this limit. If a capped collection reaches the size limit before it reaches the maximum number of documents, MongoDB removes old documents. If you prefer to use the max limit, ensure that the size limit, which is required for a capped collection, is sufficient to contain the maximum number of documents.
maxTimeMS	integer	The cumulative time limit in milliseconds for processing operations on the cursor. MongoDB aborts the operation at the earliest following interrupt point.
pipeline	array	An array that consists of the aggregation pipeline stage(s), which will be applied to the collection or view specified by viewOn. See the create command documentation for more information. New in version 1.13.
session	MongoDB\Driver\Session	Client session to associate with the operation. New in version 1.3.
size	integer	Specify a maximum size in bytes for a capped collection. Once a capped collection reaches its maximum size, MongoDB removes the older documents to make space for the new documents. The size option is required for capped collections and ignored for other collections.
storageEngine	array|object	Available for the WiredTiger storage engine only. Allows users to specify configuration to the storage engine on a per-collection basis when creating a collection. The value of the storageEngine option should take the following form: { <storage-engine-name>: <options> } Storage engine configurations specified when creating collections are validated and logged to the oplog during replication to support replica sets with members that use different storage engines.
timeseries	array|object	An object containing options for creating time series collections. See the create command documentation for supported options. This option is available since MongoDB 5.0 and will result in an exception at execution time if specified for an older server version. New in version 1.9.
typeMap	array	The type map to apply to cursors, which determines how BSON documents are converted to PHP values. Defaults to the database's type map. This will be used for the returned command result document.
validationAction	string	Determines whether to error on invalid documents or just warn about the violations but allow invalid documents to be inserted. Important Validation of documents only applies to those documents as determined by the validationLevel. validationAction Description "error" Default. Documents must pass validation before the write occurs. Otherwise, the write operation fails. "warn" Documents do not have to pass validation. If the document fails validation, the write operation logs the validation failure.
validationLevel	string	Determines how strictly MongoDB applies the validation rules to existing documents during an update. validationLevel Description "off" No validation for inserts or updates. "strict" Default. Apply validation rules to all inserts and all updates. "moderate" Apply validation rules to inserts and to updates on existing valid documents. Do not apply rules to updates on existing invalid documents.
validator	array|object	Allows users to specify validation rules or expressions for the collection. For more information, see Document Validation in the MongoDB manual. The validator option takes an array that specifies the validation rules or expressions. You can specify the expressions using the same operators as MongoDB's query operators with the exception of $near, $nearSphere, $text, and $where. Validation occurs during updates and inserts. Existing documents do not undergo validation checks until modification. You cannot specify a validator for collections in the admin, local, and config databases. You cannot specify a validator for system.* collections.
viewOn	string	The name of the source collection or view from which to create the view. The name is not the full namespace of the collection or view (i.e. it does not include the database name). Views must be created in the same databases as the source collection or view. New in version 1.13.
writeConcern	MongoDB\Driver\WriteConcern	Write concern to use for the operation. Defaults to the database's write concern.

Errors/Exceptions

MongoDB\Exception\UnsupportedException if options are used and not supported by the selected server (e.g. collation, readConcern, writeConcern).

MongoDB\Exception\InvalidArgumentException for errors related to the parsing of parameters or options.

MongoDB\Driver\Exception\RuntimeException for other errors at the extension level (e.g. connection errors).

Example

The following example creates a users collection in the test database with document validation criteria:

<?php
$db = (new MongoDB\Client)->test;
$db->createCollection('users', [
    'validator' => [
        'username' => ['$type' => 'string'],
        'email' => ['$regex' => '@mongodb\.com$'],
    ],
]);

See Also

• create command reference in the MongoDB manual

• db.createCollection()

• Time Series Collections