$pop
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Definition
$pop
The
$pop
operator removes the first or last element of an array. Pass$pop
a value of-1
to remove the first element of an array and1
to remove the last element in an array.The
$pop
operator has the form:{ $pop: { <field>: <-1 | 1>, ... } } To specify a
<field>
in an embedded document or in an array, use dot notation.
Behavior
In MongoDB 4.4 and earlier, update operators process document fields in lexicographic order. See Update Operators Behavior for details.
The $pop
operation fails if the <field>
is not an array.
If the $pop
operator removes the last item in the
<field>
, the <field>
will then hold an empty array.
Examples
Remove the First Item of an Array
Given the following document in a collection students
:
{ _id: 1, scores: [ 8, 9, 10 ] }
The following example removes the first element (8
) in the
scores
array:
db.students.update( { _id: 1 }, { $pop: { scores: -1 } } )
After the operation, the updated document has the first item 8
removed from its scores
array:
{ _id: 1, scores: [ 9, 10 ] }
Remove the Last Item of an Array
Given the following document in a collection students
:
{ _id: 1, scores: [ 9, 10 ] }
The following example removes the last element (10
) in the
scores
array by specifying 1
in the $pop
expression:
db.students.update( { _id: 1 }, { $pop: { scores: 1 } } )
After the operation, the updated document has the last item 10
removed from its scores
array:
{ _id: 1, scores: [ 9 ] }