MongoDB - Day 10 (Remove Method)

Article

Before reading this article, I highly recommend reading the following previous parts of the series:

Remove() Method

The Remove method deletes (removes) document(s) from a collection. The Remove method searches documents based on the deleting-criteria (<query>) and removes all documents matching the criteria. We can remove a single item at a time using the <justOne> parameter and can't use the remove() method with a capped collection.

Syntax

db.Collection_Name.remove( query,{ justOne:<Boolean>} )

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
Query	Document	Specify the deletion criteria
justone	Boolean	Optional, the default value is false. Remove a single document if set to true otherwise delete all the documents matching the deletion criteria.

Return Type

The remove() returns an object containinig the status of the operation. The remove() method returns a WriteResult object that contains the status of the operation. The WriteResult object is an integer type that returns the number of documents removed.

Now we consider some examples and examine the behavior of the remove() method.

First we create a collection

Code

db.createCollection("Demo",{autoIndex:false,max:100,size:5040320})

Result

create collection

Now insert some documents into the “Demo” collection.

{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1d327ad050ed6214a4e3"),
"Product_Name" : "Pendrive",
"Price" : 250
"Amount" : 2
}
{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1d547ad050ed6214a4e4"),
"Product_Name" : "Book",
"Price" : 350,
"Amount" : 4
}
{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1d6a7ad050ed6214a4e5"),
"Product_Name" : "Photo Frame",
"Price" : 150,
"Amount" : 3
}
{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1d947ad050ed6214a4e6"),
"Product_Name" : "Pencil",
"Price" : 15,
"Amount" : 20
}
{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1dc47ad050ed6214a4e7"),
"Product_Name" : "Keyboard",
"Price" : 1500,
"Amount" : 4
}
{
"_id" : ObjectId("55ca1dd57ad050ed6214a4e8"),
"Product_Name" : "Mouse",
"Price" : 125,
"Amount" : 5
}

Structure of “Demo” collection

Remove all document from collection

To remove all the documents in a collection, use the remove method with an empty query document {}.

Query

db.Demo.remove({})

Collection after Query

This query removes all the documents from the “Demo” collection.

Note that the remove() and drop() methods are not the same. The Drop() method drops an entire collection including it's structure and index but the remove() method deletes only the documents from the collection.

Remove all Documents that Match the Deletion Criteria

To remove all the documents that match a certain criteria, use the <query> parameter and apply the deletion criteria.

Query

db.Demo.remove({Price:{$gt:235,$lt:2001}})

This query removes all the documents in which the value of the “Price” field is greater than 350 and less than 2001.

Collection after Query

Remove Single Document

To remove the first document that matches a deletion criteria, use the “justOne” parameter of the remove() method. Set the value of the “justOne” parameter to true or 1.

Query

db.Demo.remove({Price:{$gt:235,$lt:2001}},{justOne:1})

This removes the first document that matches the deletion criteria.

Collection after Query

Remove method with Capped Collection

We can't delete a specific document from a capped collection. To remove all documents from a collection, use the drop() method to drop the collection.

Let us see an example as in the following:

Example

In the preceding example we tried to use the remove method with a capped collection so MongoDB throws an error. To remove all documents from a collection, use the drop() method.

Use Isolated option with remove operation

During removal of multiple documents, the remove operation may interleave with other read and write operations of the collection. To override this behavior use the “$isolated” option. Isolated option ensures that no client can see the affected documents until they are all processed or an error stops the remove operation. To use the isolate behavior in the remove method set the “$isolated” parameter to 1 or true.

Example