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Array Update Operators

$pull

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  • Compatibility
  • Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Examples
$pull

The $pull operator removes from an existing array all instances of a value or values that match a specified condition.

Compatibility

You can use $pull for deployments hosted in the following environments:

  • MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

  • MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB

  • MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

Syntax

The $pull operator has the following form:

{ $pull: { <field1>: <value|condition>, <field2>: <value|condition>, ... } }

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.

If you specify a <condition> and the array elements are embedded documents, $pull operator applies the <condition> as if each array element were a document in a collection. See Remove All Items That Match a Specified $pull Condition With bulkWrite() for an example.

If the specified <value> to remove is an array, $pull removes only the elements in the array that match the specified <value> exactly, including order.

If the specified <value> to remove is a document, $pull removes only the elements in the array that have the exact same fields and values. The ordering of the fields can differ.

Examples

Remove All Items That Equal a Specified Value

Given the following document in the stores collection:

{
   _id: 1,
   fruits: [ "apples", "pears", "oranges", "grapes", "bananas" ],
   vegetables: [ "carrots", "celery", "squash", "carrots" ]
}
{
   _id: 2,
   fruits: [ "plums", "kiwis", "oranges", "bananas", "apples" ],
   vegetables: [ "broccoli", "zucchini", "carrots", "onions" ]
}

The following operation updates all documents in the collection to remove "apples" and "oranges" from the array fruits and remove "carrots" from the array vegetables:

db.stores.update(
    { },
    { $pull: { fruits: { $in: [ "apples", "oranges" ] }, vegetables: "carrots" } },
    { multi: true }
)

After the operation, the fruits array no longer contains any "apples" or "oranges" values, and the vegetables array no longer contains any "carrots" values:

{
  "_id" : 1,
  "fruits" : [ "pears", "grapes", "bananas" ],
  "vegetables" : [ "celery", "squash" ]
}
{
  "_id" : 2,
  "fruits" : [ "plums", "kiwis", "bananas" ],
  "vegetables" : [ "broccoli", "zucchini", "onions" ]
}

Remove All Items That Match a Specified $pull Condition

Given the following document in the profiles collection:

{ _id: 1, votes: [ 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8 ] }

The following operation will remove all items from the votes array that are greater than or equal to ($gte) 6:

db.profiles.update( { _id: 1 }, { $pull: { votes: { $gte: 6 } } } )

After the update operation, the document only has values less than 6:

{ _id: 1, votes: [  3,  5 ] }

Remove All Items That Match a Specified $pull Condition With bulkWrite()

The following db.collection.bulkWrite() operation:

  • Creates the profilesBulkWrite collection.

  • Removes all items from the votes array that are greater than or equal to ( $gte ) 6.

  • Removes all items from the votes array that are less than or equal to ( $lte ) 3.

try {
   db.profilesBulkWrite.bulkWrite( [
      {
         insertOne: {
            "document": { _id: 1, votes: [ 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8 ] }
         }
      },
      {
         updateOne: {
            "filter": { _id: 1 },
            "update": { $pull: { votes: { $gte: 6 } } }
         }
      },
      {
         updateOne: {
            "filter": {_id: 1},
            "update": { $pull: { votes: { $lte: 3 } } }
         }
      }
   ] );
} catch (e) {
   print(e);
}

Note

bulkWrite()

The db.collection.bulkWrite() method executes multiple write operations listed in an array. In this example, the db.collection.bulkWrite() performs multiple operations on the profiles collection.

After the db.collection.bulkWrite() operation, you can confirm the document only has values less than 6 and greater than 3 using the following operation:

db.profilesBulkWrite.find()

The operation returns the following:

[ { _id: 1, votes: [ 5 ] } ]

Remove Items from an Array of Documents

A survey collection contains the following documents:

{
   _id: 1,
   results: [
      { item: "A", score: 5 },
      { item: "B", score: 8, comment: "Strongly agree" }
   ]
}
{
   _id: 2,
   results: [
      { item: "C", score: 8, comment: "Strongly agree" },
      { item: "B", score: 4 }
   ]
}

The following operation will remove from the results array all elements that contain both a score field equal to 8 and an item field equal to "B":

db.survey.update(
  { },
  { $pull: { results: { score: 8 , item: "B" } } },
  { multi: true }
)

The $pull expression applies the condition to each element of the results array as though it were a top-level document.

After the operation, the results array contains no documents that contain both a score field equal to 8 and an item field equal to "B".

{
   "_id" : 1,
   "results" : [ { "item" : "A", "score" : 5 } ]
}
{
  "_id" : 2,
  "results" : [
      { "item" : "C", "score" : 8, "comment" : "Strongly agree" },
      { "item" : "B", "score" : 4 }
   ]
}

Because $pull operator applies its query to each element as though it were a top-level object, the expression did not require the use of $elemMatch to specify the condition of a score field equal to 8 and item field equal to "B". In fact, the following operation will not pull any element from the original collection.

db.survey.update(
  { },
  { $pull: { results: { $elemMatch: { score: 8 , item: "B" } } } },
  { multi: true }
)

However, if the survey collection contained the following documents, where the results array contains embedded documents that also contain arrays:

{
   _id: 1,
   results: [
      { item: "A", score: 5, answers: [ { q: 1, a: 4 }, { q: 2, a: 6 } ] },
      { item: "B", score: 8, answers: [ { q: 1, a: 8 }, { q: 2, a: 9 } ] }
   ]
}
{
   _id: 2,
   results: [
      { item: "C", score: 8, answers: [ { q: 1, a: 8 }, { q: 2, a: 7 } ] },
      { item: "B", score: 4, answers: [ { q: 1, a: 0 }, { q: 2, a: 8 } ] }
   ]
}

Then you can specify multiple conditions on the elements of the answers array with $elemMatch:

db.survey.update(
  { },
  { $pull: { results: { answers: { $elemMatch: { q: 2, a: { $gte: 8 } } } } } },
  { multi: true }
)

The operation removed from the results array those embedded documents with an answers field that contained at least one element with q equal to 2 and a greater than or equal to 8:

{
   "_id" : 1,
   "results" : [
      { "item" : "A", "score" : 5, "answers" : [ { "q" : 1, "a" : 4 }, { "q" : 2, "a" : 6 } ] }
   ]
}
{
   "_id" : 2,
   "results" : [
      { "item" : "C", "score" : 8, "answers" : [ { "q" : 1, "a" : 8 }, { "q" : 2, "a" : 7 } ] }
   ]
}

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