cursor.limit()
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Definition
cursor.limit()Important
mongosh Method
This page documents a
mongoshmethod. This is not the documentation for a language-specific driver, such as Node.js.For MongoDB API drivers, refer to the language-specific MongoDB driver documentation.
Use the
limit()method on a cursor to specify the maximum number of documents the cursor will return.limit()is analogous to theLIMITstatement in a SQL database.Note
You must apply
limit()to the cursor before retrieving any documents from the database.Use
limit()to maximize performance and prevent MongoDB from returning more results than required for processing.The
limit()method has the following prototype form:db.collection.find(<query>).limit(<number>)
Behavior
Supported Values
The behavior of limit() is undefined for values less
than -2 31 and greater than 2 31.
You must specify a numeric value for limit().
Zero Value
A limit() value of 0 (i.e. .limit(0)) is equivalent to setting no limit.
Negative Values
A negative limit is similar to a positive limit but closes the cursor
after returning a single batch of results. As
such, with a negative limit, if the limited result set does not fit
into a single batch, the number of documents received will be less than
the specified limit. By passing a negative limit, the client indicates
to the server that it will not ask for a subsequent batch via
getMore.
Using limit() with sort()
If using limit() with sort(), be
sure to include at least one field in your sort that contains
unique values, before passing results to limit().
Sorting on fields that contain duplicate values may return an inconsistent sort order for those duplicate fields over multiple executions, especially when the collection is actively receiving writes.
The easiest way to guarantee sort consistency is to include the
_id field in your sort query.
See Consistent sorting with the sort() method for more information.