Query an Array of Embedded Documents¶

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This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the db.collection.find() method in the mongo shell. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the pymongo.collection.Collection.find() method in the PyMongo Python driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the com.mongodb.client.MongoCollection.find method in the MongoDB Java Synchronous Driver.

Tip

The driver provides com.mongodb.client.model.Filters helper methods to facilitate the creation of filter documents. The examples on this page use these methods to create the filter documents.

The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the Collection.find() method in the MongoDB Node.js Driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the MongoDB\Collection::find() method in the MongoDB PHP Library. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the com.mongodb.reactivestreams.client.MongoCollection.find method in the MongoDB Java Reactive Streams Driver.

The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the MongoCollection.Find() method in the MongoDB C# Driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the MongoDB::Collection::find() method in the MongoDB Perl Driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the Mongo::Collection#find() method in the MongoDB Ruby Driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

This page provides examples of query operations on an array of nested documents using the collection.find() method in the MongoDB Scala Driver. The examples on this page use the inventory collection. To populate the inventory collection, run the following:

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db.inventory.insertMany( [
   { item: "journal", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 5 }, { warehouse: "C", qty: 15 } ] },
   { item: "notebook", instock: [ { warehouse: "C", qty: 5 } ] },
   { item: "paper", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 60 }, { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 } ] },
   { item: "planner", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 40 }, { warehouse: "B", qty: 5 } ] },
   { item: "postcard", instock: [ { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 }, { warehouse: "C", qty: 35 } ] }
]);

You can run the operation in the web shell below:

# Subdocument key order matters in a few of these examples so we have
# to use bson.son.SON instead of a Python dict.
from bson.son import SON
db.inventory.insert_many([
    {"item": "journal",
     "instock": [
         SON([("warehouse", "A"), ("qty", 5)]),
         SON([("warehouse", "C"), ("qty", 15)])]},
    {"item": "notebook",
     "instock": [
         SON([("warehouse", "C"), ("qty", 5)])]},
    {"item": "paper",
     "instock": [
         SON([("warehouse", "A"), ("qty", 60)]),
         SON([("warehouse", "B"), ("qty", 15)])]},
    {"item": "planner",
     "instock": [
         SON([("warehouse", "A"), ("qty", 40)]),
         SON([("warehouse", "B"), ("qty", 5)])]},
    {"item": "postcard",
     "instock": [
         SON([("warehouse", "B"), ("qty", 15)]),
         SON([("warehouse", "C"), ("qty", 35)])]}])

collection.insertMany(asList(
        Document.parse("{ item: 'journal', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 }, { warehouse: 'C', qty: 15 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'notebook', instock: [ { warehouse: 'C', qty: 5 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'paper', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 60 }, { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'planner', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 40 }, { warehouse: 'B', qty: 5 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'postcard', instock: [ { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 }, { warehouse: 'C', qty: 35 } ] }")
));

db.collection('inventory').insertMany([
  { item: "journal",
    instock: [
      { warehouse: "A", qty: 5 },
      { warehouse: "C", qty: 15 }]},
  { item: "notebook",
    instock: [
      { warehouse: "C", qty: 5 }]},
  { item: "paper",
    instock: [
      { warehouse: "A", qty: 60 },
      { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 }]},
  { item: "planner",
    instock: [
      { warehouse: "A", qty: 40 },
      { warehouse: "B", qty: 5 }]},
  { item: "postcard",
    instock: [
      { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 },
      { warehouse: "C", qty: 35 }]}
])
.then(function(result) {
  // process result
})

$insertManyResult = $db->inventory->insertMany([
    [
        'item' => 'journal', 
        'instock' => [
            ['warehouse' => 'A',  'qty' => 5],
            ['warehouse' => 'C',  'qty' => 15],
        ],
    ],
    [
        'item' => 'notebook', 
        'instock' => [
            ['warehouse' => 'C',  'qty' => 5],
        ],
    ],
    [
        'item' => 'paper', 
        'instock' => [
            ['warehouse' => 'A',  'qty' => 60],
            ['warehouse' => 'B',  'qty' => 15],
        ],
    ],
    [
        'item' => 'planner', 
        'instock' => [
            ['warehouse' => 'A',  'qty' => 40],
            ['warehouse' => 'B',  'qty' => 5],
        ],
    ],
    [
        'item' => 'postcard', 
        'instock' => [
            ['warehouse' => 'B',  'qty' => 15],
            ['warehouse' => 'C',  'qty' => 35],
        ],
    ],
]);

Publisher<Success> insertManyPublisher = collection.insertMany(asList(
        Document.parse("{ item: 'journal', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 }, { warehouse: 'C', qty: 15 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'notebook', instock: [ { warehouse: 'C', qty: 5 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'paper', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 60 }, { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'planner', instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 40 }, { warehouse: 'B', qty: 5 } ] }"),
        Document.parse("{ item: 'postcard', instock: [ { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 }, { warehouse: 'C', qty: 35 } ] }")
));

var documents = new[]
{
    new BsonDocument
    {
        { "item", "journal" },
        { "instock", new BsonArray
            {
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "A" }, { "qty", 5 } },
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "C" }, { "qty", 15 } } }
            }
    },
    new BsonDocument
    {
        { "item", "notebook" },
        { "instock", new BsonArray
            {
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "C" }, { "qty", 5 } } }
            }
    },
    new BsonDocument
    {
        { "item", "paper" },
        { "instock", new BsonArray
            {
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "A" }, { "qty", 60 } },
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "B" }, { "qty", 15 } } }
            }
    },
    new BsonDocument
    {
        { "item", "planner" },
        { "instock", new BsonArray
            {
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "A" }, { "qty", 40 } },
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "B" }, { "qty", 5 } } }
            }
    },
    new BsonDocument
    {
        { "item", "postcard" },
        { "instock", new BsonArray
            {
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "B" }, { "qty", 15 } },
                new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "C" }, { "qty", 35 } } }
            }
    }
};
collection.InsertMany(documents);

# Subdocument key order matters in this example so we have
# to use Tie::IxHash instead of a regular, unordered Perl hash.
$db->coll("inventory")->insert_many(
    [
        {
            item    => "journal",
            instock => [
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "A", qty => 5 ),
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "C", qty => 15 )
            ]
        },
        {
            item    => "notebook",
            instock => [ Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "C", qty => 5 ) ]
        },
        {
            item    => "paper",
            instock => [
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "A", qty => 60 ),
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "B", qty => 15 )
            ]
        },
        {
            item    => "planner",
            instock => [
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "A", qty => 40 ),
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "B", qty => 5 )
            ]
        },
        {
            item    => "postcard",
            instock => [
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "B", qty => 15 ),
                Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "C", qty => 35 )
            ]
        }
    ]
);

client[:inventory].insert_many([{ item: 'journal',
                                  instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 },
                                             { warehouse: 'C', qty: 15 }] },
                                { item: 'notebook',
                                  instock: [ { warehouse: 'C', qty: 5 }] },
                                { item: 'paper',
                                  instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 60 },
                                             { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 }] },
                                { item: 'planner',
                                  instock: [ { warehouse: 'A', qty: 40 },
                                             { warehouse: 'B', qty: 5 }] },
                                { item: 'postcard',
                                  instock: [ { warehouse: 'B', qty: 15 },
                                             { warehouse: 'C', qty: 35 }] }
                               ])

collection.insertMany(Seq(
  Document("""{ item: "journal", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 5 }, { warehouse: "C", qty: 15 } ] }"""),
  Document("""{ item: "notebook", instock: [ { warehouse: "C", qty: 5 } ] }"""),
  Document("""{ item: "paper", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 60 }, { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 } ] }"""),
  Document("""{ item: "planner", instock: [ { warehouse: "A", qty: 40 }, { warehouse: "B", qty: 5 } ] }"""),
  Document("""{ item: "postcard", instock: [ { warehouse: "B", qty: 15 }, { warehouse: "C", qty: 35 } ] }""")
)).execute()

Query for a Document Nested in an Array¶

The following examples selects all documents where an element in the instock array matches the specified document:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock": { warehouse: "A", qty: 5 } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find(
    {"instock": SON([("warehouse", "A"), ("qty", 5)])})

FindIterable<Document> findIterable = collection.find(eq("instock", Document.parse("{ warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 }")));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  instock: { warehouse: "A", qty: 5 }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock' => ['warehouse' => 'A', 'qty' => 5]]);

FindPublisher<Document> findPublisher = collection.find(eq("instock", Document.parse("{ warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 }")));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.AnyEq("instock", new BsonDocument { { "warehouse", "A" }, { "qty", 5 } });
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

# Subdocument key order matters in this example so we have
# to use Tie::IxHash instead of a regular, unordered Perl hash.
$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find(
    { instock => Tie::IxHash->new( warehouse => "A", qty => 5 ) }
);

client[:inventory].find(instock: { warehouse: 'A', qty: 5 })

var findObservable = collection.find(equal("instock", Document("warehouse" -> "A", "qty" -> 5)))

Equality matches on the whole embedded/nested document require an exact match of the specified document, including the field order. For example, the following query does not match any documents in the inventory collection:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock": { qty: 5, warehouse: "A" } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find(
    {"instock": SON([("qty", 5), ("warehouse", "A")])})

findIterable = collection.find(eq("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: 5, warehouse: 'A' }")));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  instock: { qty: 5, warehouse: "A" }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock' => ['qty' => 5, 'warehouse' => 'A']]);

findPublisher = collection.find(eq("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: 5, warehouse: 'A' }")));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.AnyEq("instock", new BsonDocument { { "qty", 5 }, { "warehouse", "A" } });
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

# Subdocument key order matters in this example so we have
# to use Tie::IxHash instead of a regular, unordered Perl hash.
$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find(
    { instock => Tie::IxHash->new( qty => 5, warehouse => "A" ) }
);

client[:inventory].find(instock: { qty: 5, warehouse: 'A' } )

findObservable = collection.find(equal("instock", Document("qty" -> 5, "warehouse" -> "A")))

Specify a Query Condition on a Field in an Array of Documents¶

Use the Array Index to Query for a Field in the Embedded Document¶

Using the dot notation, you can specify query conditions for field in a document at a particular index or position of the array. The array uses zero-based indexing.

The following example selects all documents where the instock array has as its first element a document that contains the field qty whose value is less than or equal to 20:

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db.inventory.find( { 'instock.0.qty': { $lte: 20 } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find({'instock.0.qty': {"$lte": 20}})

findIterable = collection.find(lte("instock.0.qty", 20));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  "instock.0.qty": { $lte: 20 }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock.0.qty' => ['$lte' => 20]]);

findPublisher = collection.find(lte("instock.0.qty", 20));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.Lte("instock.0.qty", 20);
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find( { 'instock.0.qty' => { '$lte' => 20 } } );

client[:inventory].find('instock.0.qty' => { '$lte' => 20 })

findObservable = collection.find(lte("instock.0.qty", 20))

Specify a Query Condition on a Field Embedded in an Array of Documents¶

If you do not know the index position of the document nested in the array, concatenate the name of the array field, with a dot (.) and the name of the field in the nested document.

The following example selects all documents where the instock array has at least one embedded document that contains the field qty whose value is less than or equal to 20:

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db.inventory.find( { 'instock.qty': { $lte: 20 } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find({'instock.qty': {"$lte": 20}})

findIterable = collection.find(lte("instock.qty", 20));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  "instock.qty": { $lte: 20 }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock.qty' => ['$lte' => 20]]);

findPublisher = collection.find(lte("instock.qty", 20));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.Lte("instock.qty", 20);
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find( { 'instock.qty' => { '$lte' => 20 } } );

client[:inventory].find('instock.qty' => { '$lte' => 20 })

findObservable = collection.find(lte("instock.qty", 20))

Specify Multiple Conditions for Array of Documents¶

When specifying conditions on more than one field nested in an array of documents, you can specify the query such that either a single document meets these condition or any combination of documents (including a single document) in the array meets the conditions.

A Single Nested Document Meets Multiple Query Conditions on Nested Fields¶

Use $elemMatch operator to specify multiple criteria on an array of embedded documents such that at least one embedded document satisfies all the specified criteria.

The following example queries for documents where the instock array has at least one embedded document that contains both the field qty equal to 5 and the field warehouse equal to A:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock": { $elemMatch: { qty: 5, warehouse: "A" } } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find(
    {"instock": {"$elemMatch": {"qty": 5, "warehouse": "A"}}})

findIterable = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: 5, warehouse: 'A' }")));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  instock: { $elemMatch: { qty: 5, warehouse: "A" } }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock' => ['$elemMatch' => ['qty' => 5, 'warehouse' => 'A']]]);

findPublisher = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: 5, warehouse: 'A' }")));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.ElemMatch<BsonValue>("instock", new BsonDocument { { "qty", 5 }, { "warehouse", "A" } });
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find(
    { instock => { '$elemMatch' => { qty => 5, warehouse => "A" } } }
);

client[:inventory].find(instock: { '$elemMatch' => { qty: 5,
                                                     warehouse: 'A' } })

findObservable = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document("qty" -> 5, "warehouse" -> "A")))

The following example queries for documents where the instock array has at least one embedded document that contains the field qty that is greater than 10 and less than or equal to 20:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock": { $elemMatch: { qty: { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 } } } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find(
    {"instock": {"$elemMatch": {"qty": {"$gt": 10, "$lte": 20}}}})

findIterable = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 } }")));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  instock: { $elemMatch: { qty: { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 } } }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock' => ['$elemMatch' => ['qty' => ['$gt' => 10, '$lte' => 20]]]]);

findPublisher = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document.parse("{ qty: { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 } }")));

var filter = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter.ElemMatch<BsonValue>("instock", new BsonDocument { { "qty", new BsonDocument { { "$gt", 10 }, { "$lte", 20 } } } });
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory") ->find(
    { instock => { '$elemMatch' => { qty => { '$gt' => 10, '$lte' => 20 } } } }
);

client[:inventory].find(instock: { '$elemMatch' => { qty: { '$gt'  => 10,
                                                            '$lte' => 20 } } })

findObservable = collection.find(elemMatch("instock", Document("""{ qty: { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 } }""")))

Combination of Elements Satisfies the Criteria¶

If the compound query conditions on an array field do not use the $elemMatch operator, the query selects those documents whose array contains any combination of elements that satisfies the conditions.

For example, the following query matches documents where any document nested in the instock array has the qty field greater than 10 and any document (but not necessarily the same embedded document) in the array has the qty field less than or equal to 20:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock.qty": { $gt: 10,  $lte: 20 } } )

cursor = db.inventory.find({"instock.qty": {"$gt": 10, "$lte": 20}})

findIterable = collection.find(and(gt("instock.qty", 10), lte("instock.qty", 20)));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  "instock.qty": { $gt: 10, $lte: 20 }
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock.qty' => ['$gt' => 10, '$lte' => 20]]);

findPublisher = collection.find(and(gt("instock.qty", 10), lte("instock.qty", 20)));

var builder = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter;
var filter = builder.And(builder.Gt("instock.qty", 10), builder.Lte("instock.qty", 20));
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find(
    { "instock.qty" => { '$gt' => 10, '$lte' => 20 } }
);

client[:inventory].find('instock.qty' => { '$gt' => 10, '$lte' => 20 })

findObservable = collection.find(and(gt("instock.qty", 10), lte("instock.qty", 20)))

The following example queries for documents where the instock array has at least one embedded document that contains the field qty equal to 5 and at least one embedded document (but not necessarily the same embedded document) that contains the field warehouse equal to A:

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db.inventory.find( { "instock.qty": 5, "instock.warehouse": "A" } )

cursor = db.inventory.find(
    {"instock.qty": 5, "instock.warehouse": "A"})

findIterable = collection.find(and(eq("instock.qty", 5), eq("instock.warehouse", "A")));

var cursor = db.collection('inventory').find({ 
  "instock.qty": 5, "instock.warehouse": "A"
});

$cursor = $db->inventory->find(['instock.qty' => 5, 'instock.warehouse' => 'A']);

findPublisher = collection.find(and(eq("instock.qty", 5), eq("instock.warehouse", "A")));

var builder = Builders<BsonDocument>.Filter;
var filter = builder.And(builder.Eq("instock.qty", 5), builder.Eq("instock.warehouse", "A"));
var result = collection.Find(filter).ToList();

$cursor = $db->coll("inventory")->find(
    { "instock.qty" => 5, "instock.warehouse" => "A" }
);

client[:inventory].find('instock.qty' => 5,
                        'instock.warehouse' => 'A')

findObservable = collection.find(and(equal("instock.qty", 5), equal("instock.warehouse", "A")))

Additional Query Tutorials¶

For additional query examples, see:

← Query an Array Project Fields to Return from Query →