Docs Menu
Docs Home
/
MongoDB Manual
/ / /

$type (aggregation)

On this page

  • Definition
  • Behavior
  • Example
$type

Returns a string that specifies the BSON type of the argument.

$type has the following operator expression syntax:

{ $type: <expression> }

The argument can be any valid expression.

Tip

See also:

  • $isNumber - checks if the argument is a number.

  • $type (Query) - filters fields based on BSON type.

Unlike the $type query operator, which matches array elements based on their BSON type, the $type aggregation operator does not examine array elements. Instead, when passed an array as its argument, the $type aggregation operator returns the type of the argument, i.e. "array".

If the argument is a field that is missing in the input document, $type returns the string "missing".

The following table shows the $type output for several common types of expressions:

Example
Results

{ $type: "a" }

"string"

{ $type: /a/ }

"regex"

{ $type: 1 }

"double"

{ $type: NumberLong(627) }

"long"

{ $type: { x: 1 } }

"object"

{ $type: [ [ 1, 2, 3 ] ] }

"array"

Note

In the case of a literal array such as [ 1, 2, 3 ], enclose the expression in an outer set of array brackets to prevent MongoDB from parsing [ 1, 2, 3 ] as an argument list with three arguments (1, 2, 3). Wrapping the array [ 1, 2, 3 ] in a $literal expression achieves the same result.

See operator expression syntax forms for more information.

Type
Number
Alias
Notes

Double

1

"double"

String

2

"string"

Object

3

"object"

Array

4

"array"

Binary data

5

"binData"

Undefined

6

"undefined"

Deprecated.

ObjectId

7

"objectId"

Boolean

8

"bool"

Date

9

"date"

Null

10

"null"

Regular Expression

11

"regex"

DBPointer

12

"dbPointer"

Deprecated.

JavaScript

13

"javascript"

Symbol

14

"symbol"

Deprecated.

32-bit integer

16

"int"

Timestamp

17

"timestamp"

64-bit integer

18

"long"

Decimal128

19

"decimal"

Min key

-1

"minKey"

Max key

127

"maxKey"

If the argument is a field that is missing in the input document, $type returns the string "missing".

This example uses a collection named coll with the following documents:

{ _id: 0, a : 8 }
{ _id: 1, a : [ 41.63, 88.19 ] }
{ _id: 2, a : { a : "apple", b : "banana", c: "carrot" } }
{ _id: 3, a : "caribou" }
{ _id: 4, a : NumberLong(71) }
{ _id: 5 }

The following aggregation operation uses the $type operator to display the type of field a for all documents as part of the $project stage.

db.coll.aggregate([{
$project: {
a : { $type: "$a" }
}
}])

The operation returns the following:

{ _id: 0, "a" : "double" }
{ _id: 1, "a" : "array" }
{ _id: 2, "a" : "object" }
{ _id: 3, "a" : "string" }
{ _id: 4, "a" : "long" }
{ _id: 5, "a" : "missing" }

Back

$trunc