MongoDB: count the number of items in an array

mongodb mongoid
randombits picture randombits · Jan 27, 2014 · Viewed 66.3k times · Source

I have a collection where every document in the collection has an array named foo that contains a set of embedded documents. Is there currently a trivial way in the MongoDB shell to count how many instances are within foo? something like:

db.mycollection.foos.count() or db.mycollection.foos.size()?

Each document in the array needs to have a unique foo_id and I want to do a quick count to make sure that the right amount of elements are inside of an array for a random document in the collection.

Answer

Stennie picture Stennie · Mar 3, 2014

In MongoDB 2.6, the Aggregation Framework has a new array $size operator you can use:

> db.mycollection.insert({'foo':[1,2,3,4]})
> db.mycollection.insert({'foo':[5,6,7]})

> db.mycollection.aggregate([{$project: { count: { $size:"$foo" }}}])
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5314b5c360477752b449eedf"), "count" : 4 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5314b5c860477752b449eee0"), "count" : 3 }

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