MongoDB findOne

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the MongoDB findOne() method to retrieve a single document from a collection.

Introduction to MongoDB findOne() method

The findOne() returns a single document from a collection that satisfies the specified condition.

The findOne() method has the following syntax:

db.collection.findOne(query, projection)
Code language: CSS (css)

The findOne() accepts two optional arguments: query and projection.

• The query is a document that specifies the selection criteria.
• The projection is a document that specifies the fields in the matching document that you want to return.

If you omit the query, the findOne() returns the first document in the collection according to the natural order which is the order of documents on the disk.

If you don’t pass the projection argument, then findOne() will include all fields in the matching documents.

To specify whether a field should be included in the returned document, you use the following format:

{field1: value, field1: value, ... }

If the value is true or 1, MongoDB will include the field in the returned document. In case the value is false or 0, MongoDB won’t include it.

By default, MongoDB always includes the _id field in the returned documents. To suppress it, you need to explicitly specify _id: 0 in the projection argument.

If multiple documents satisfy the query, the findOne() method returns the first document based on the order of documents stored on the data storage.

Note that there are other forms of projections such as array projection and aggregation projection which are not covered in this tutorial.

MongoDB findOne() method examples

We’ll use the following products collection for the demonstration:

db.products.insertMany([
    { "_id" : 1, "name" : "xPhone", "price" : 799, "releaseDate": ISODate("2011-05-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 4, "screen" : 6.5, "cpu" : 2.66 },"color":["white","black"],"storage":[64,128,256]},
    { "_id" : 2, "name" : "xTablet", "price" : 899, "releaseDate": ISODate("2011-09-01") , "spec" : { "ram" : 16, "screen" : 9.5, "cpu" : 3.66 },"color":["white","black","purple"],"storage":[128,256,512]},
    { "_id" : 3, "name" : "SmartTablet", "price" : 899, "releaseDate": ISODate("2015-01-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 12, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 3.66 },"color":["blue"],"storage":[16,64,128]},
    { "_id" : 4, "name" : "SmartPad", "price" : 699, "releaseDate": ISODate("2020-05-14"),"spec" : { "ram" : 8, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 1.66 },"color":["white","orange","gold","gray"],"storage":[128,256,1024]},
    { "_id" : 5, "name" : "SmartPhone", "price" : 599,"releaseDate": ISODate("2022-09-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 4, "screen" : 5.7, "cpu" : 1.66 },"color":["white","orange","gold","gray"],"storage":[128,256]}
 ])
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

1) Using MongoDB findOne() method with zero argument

The following example uses the findOne() method to select the first document from the products collection:

db.products.findOne()
Code language: CSS (css)

The statement returns all fields of the matching document:

{
  _id: 1,
  name: 'xPhone',
  price: 799,
  releaseDate: ISODate("2011-05-14T00:00:00.000Z"),
  spec: { ram: 4, screen: 6.5, cpu: 2.66 },
  color: [ 'white', 'black' ],
  storage: [ 64, 128, 256 ]
}
Code language: CSS (css)

Note that omitting the query is the same as passing the query as an empty document:

db.products.findOne({})
Code language: CSS (css)

2) Using MongoDB findOne() method with a filter

The following statement uses the findOne() method to find the document whose _id is 2.

 db.products.findOne({_id:2})
Code language: CSS (css)

It returns all the fields of the document with _id 2:

{
  _id: 2,
  name: 'xTablet',
  price: 899,
  releaseDate: ISODate("2011-09-01T00:00:00.000Z"),
  spec: { ram: 16, screen: 9.5, cpu: 3.66 },
  color: [ 'white', 'black', 'purple' ],
  storage: [ 128, 256, 512 ]
}
Code language: CSS (css)

3) Using MongoDB findOne() method to select some fields

The following example uses the findOne() method to find the document with _id 5. And it returns only the _id and name fields of the matching document:

db.products.findOne({_id: 5}, {name: 1})
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The query returned the following document:

{ "_id" : 5, "name" : "SmartPhone" }
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

As you can see clearly from the output, MongoDB includes the _id field in the returned document by default.

To completely remove it from the returned document, you need to explicitly specify _id:0 in the projection document like this:

db.products.findOne({ _id: 5 }, {name: 1, _id: 0})
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

It returned the following document:

{ "name" : "SmartPhone" }
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Summary

• Use the findOne() method to retrieve the first document in a collection that satisfies the specified condition.