How to update values using pymongo?

Question

I've a mongodb collection in this form:

{id=ObjectId(....),key={dictionary of values}}
where dictionary of values is {'a':'1','b':'2'.....}

Let dictionary of values be 'd'. I need to update the values of the key in the 'd'. i.e I want to change 'a':'1' to 'a':'2' How can do I this in pymongo?

Code goes something like this:

productData is a collection in mongoDB
for p in productData.find():
     for k,v in p.iteritems():
         value=v['a']
         value=value+1
         v['a']=value

Now reflect the new value in the productData.

This is what I've tried and it introduces a new key-value pair instead of updating the

for p in productData.find():
    for k,v in p.iteritems():
         value=v['a']
         value=value+1
         v['a']=value
         productData.update({'_id':mongoId},{"$set":{'d.a':'100'}},upsert=False)

Answer 1

You can use the $set syntax if you want to set the value of a document to an arbitrary value. This will either update the value if the attribute already exists on the document or create it if it doesn't. If you need to set a single value in a dictionary like you describe, you can use the dot notation to access child values.

If p is the object retrieved:

existing = p['d']['a']

For pymongo versions < 3.0

db.ProductData.update({
  '_id': p['_id']
},{
  '$set': {
    'd.a': existing + 1
  }
}, upsert=False, multi=False)

For pymongo versions >= 3.0

db.ProductData.update_one({
  '_id': p['_id']
},{
  '$set': {
    'd.a': existing + 1
  }
}, upsert=False)

However if you just need to increment the value, this approach could introduce issues when multiple requests could be running concurrently. Instead you should use the $inc syntax:

For pymongo versions < 3.0:

db.ProductData.update({
  '_id': p['_id']
},{
  '$inc': {
    'd.a': 1
  }
}, upsert=False, multi=False)

For pymongo versions >= 3.0:

db.ProductData.update_one({
  '_id': p['_id']
},{
  '$inc': {
    'd.a': 1
  }
}, upsert=False)

This ensures your increments will always happen.