db.collection.updateMany()¶

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Definition
Behavior
Examples

Definition¶

db.collection.updateMany(filter, update, options)¶

New in version 3.2.

Updates multiple documents within the collection based on the filter.

The updateMany() method has the following form:

db.collection.updateMany(
   <filter>,
   <update>,
   {
     upsert: <boolean>,
     writeConcern: <document>,
     collation: <document>
   }
)

The updateMany() method takes the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`filter`	document	The selection criteria for the update. The same query selectors as in the `find()` method are available. Specify an empty document `{ }` to update all documents in the collection.
`update`	document	The modifications to apply. Use Update Operators such as `$set`, `$unset`, or `$rename`. Using the update() pattern of `field: value` for the `update` parameter throws an error.
`upsert`	boolean	Optional. When `true`, `updateMany()` either: Creates a new document if no documents match the `filter`. For more details see upsert behavior. Updates documents that match the `filter`. To avoid multiple upserts, ensure that the `filter` fields are uniquely indexed. Defaults to `false`.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. A document expressing the write concern. Omit to use the default write concern.
`collation`	document	Optional. Specifies the collation to use for the operation. Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks. The collation option has the following syntax: copy collation: { locale: <string>, caseLevel: <boolean>, caseFirst: <string>, strength: <int>, numericOrdering: <boolean>, alternate: <string>, maxVariable: <string>, backwards: <boolean> } When specifying collation, the `locale` field is mandatory; all other collation fields are optional. For descriptions of the fields, see Collation Document. If the collation is unspecified but the collection has a default collation (see `db.createCollection()`), the operation uses the collation specified for the collection. If no collation is specified for the collection or for the operations, MongoDB uses the simple binary comparison used in prior versions for string comparisons. You cannot specify multiple collations for an operation. For example, you cannot specify different collations per field, or if performing a find with a sort, you cannot use one collation for the find and another for the sort. New in version 3.4.

Returns:	A document containing: A boolean `acknowledged` as `true` if the operation ran with write concern or `false` if write concern was disabled `matchedCount` containing the number of matched documents `modifiedCount` containing the number of modified documents `upsertedId` containing the `_id` for the upserted document

Behavior¶

updateMany() updates all matching documents in the collection that match the filter, using the update criteria to apply modifications.

If upsert: true and no documents match the filter, updateMany() creates a new document based on the filter and update parameters. See Update Multiple Documents with Upsert.

Capped Collections¶

If an update operation changes the document size, the operation will fail.

Explainability¶

updateMany() is not compatible with db.collection.explain().

Use update() instead.

Examples¶

Update Multiple Documents¶

The restaurant collection contains the following documents:

copy

{ "_id" : 1, "name" : "Central Perk Cafe", "violations" : 3 }
{ "_id" : 2, "name" : "Rock A Feller Bar and Grill", "violations" : 2 }
{ "_id" : 3, "name" : "Empire State Sub", "violations" : 5 }
{ "_id" : 4, "name" : "Pizza Rat's Pizzaria", "violations" : 8 }

The following operation updates all documents where violations are greater than 4 and $set a flag for review:

copy

try {
   db.restaurant.updateMany(
      { violations: { $gt: 4 } },
      { $set: { "Review" : true } }
   );
} catch (e) {
   print(e);
}

The operation returns:

copy

{ "acknowledged" : true, "matchedCount" : 2, "modifiedCount" : 2 }

The collection now contains the following documents:

copy

{ "_id" : 1, "name" : "Central Perk Cafe", "violations" : 3 }
{ "_id" : 2, "name" : "Rock A Feller Bar and Grill", "violations" : 2 }
{ "_id" : 3, "name" : "Empire State Sub", "violations" : 5, "Review" : true }
{ "_id" : 4, "name" : "Pizza Rat's Pizzaria", "violations" : 8, "Review" : true }

If no matches were found, the operation instead returns:

copy

{ "acknowledged" : true, "matchedCount" : 0, "modifiedCount" : 0 }

Setting upsert: true would insert a document if no match was found.

Update Multiple Documents with Upsert¶

The inspectors collection contains the following documents:

copy

{ "_id" : 92412, "inspector" : "F. Drebin", "Sector" : 1, "Patrolling" : true },
{ "_id" : 92413, "inspector" : "J. Clouseau", "Sector" : 2, "Patrolling" : false },
{ "_id" : 92414, "inspector" : "J. Clouseau", "Sector" : 3, "Patrolling" : true },
{ "_id" : 92415, "inspector" : "R. Coltrane", "Sector" : 3, "Patrolling" : false }

The following operation updates all documents with Sector greater than 4 and inspector equal to "R. Coltrane":

copy

try {
   db.inspectors.updateMany(
      { "Sector" : { $gt : 4 }, "inspector" : "R. Coltrane" },
      { $set: { "Patrolling" : false } },
      { upsert: true }
   );
} catch (e) {
   print(e);
}

The operation returns:

copy

{
   "acknowledged" : true,
   "matchedCount" : 0,
   "modifiedCount" : 0,
   "upsertedId" : ObjectId("56fc5dcb39ee682bdc609b02")
}

The collection now contains the following documents:

copy

{ "_id" : 92412, "inspector" : "F. Drebin", "Sector" : 1, "Patrolling" : true },
{ "_id" : 92413, "inspector" : "J. Clouseau", "Sector" : 2, "Patrolling" : false },
{ "_id" : 92414, "inspector" : "J. Clouseau", "Sector" : 3, "Patrolling" : true },
{ "_id" : 92415, "inspector" : "R. Coltrane", "Sector" : 3, "Patrolling" : false },
{ "_id" : ObjectId("56fc5dcb39ee682bdc609b02"), "inspector" : "R. Coltrane", "Patrolling" : false }

Since no documents matched the filter, and upsert was true, updateMany inserted the document with a generated _id, the equality conditions from the filter, and the update modifiers.

Update with Write Concern¶

Given a three member replica set, the following operation specifies a w of majority and wtimeout of 100:

copy

try {
   db.restaurant.updateMany(
       { "name" : "Pizza Rat's Pizzaria" },
       { $inc: { "violations" : 3}, $set: { "Closed" : true } },
       { w: "majority", wtimeout: 100 }
   );
} catch (e) {
   print(e);
}

If the acknowledgement takes longer than the wtimeout limit, the following exception is thrown:

copy

WriteConcernError({
   "code" : 64,
   "errInfo" : {
      "wtimeout" : true
   },
   "errmsg" : "waiting for replication timed out"
}) :
undefined

The wtimeout error only indicates that the operation did not complete on time. The write operation itself can still succeed outside of the set time limit.

Specify Collation¶

New in version 3.4.

Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks.

A collection myColl has the following documents:

copy

{ _id: 1, category: "café", status: "A" }
{ _id: 2, category: "cafe", status: "a" }
{ _id: 3, category: "cafE", status: "a" }

The following operation includes the collation option:

copy

db.myColl.updateMany(
   { category: "cafe" },
   { $set: { status: "Updated" } },
   { collation: { locale: "fr", strength: 1 } }
);

← db.collection.updateOne() db.collection.validate() →