Pretty print in MongoDB shell as default

Question

Is there a way to tell Mongo to pretty print output? Currently, everything is output to a single line and it's difficult to read, especially with nested arrays and documents.

Now: how do you print it from external javascript loaded into Mongo? — Witold Kaczurba, May 13 '19 at 06:46
@WitoldKaczurba Try searching for the answer to your question. If you don't find an answer, go ahead and post it as a new question. — MForMarlon, Jul 16 '19 at 23:16
If you want colorized output and beautiful logging with MongoDB and Ruby on Rails, you can checkout https://github.com/ibraheemdev/mongo_beautiful_logger — Ibraheem Ahmed, Aug 03 '20 at 16:42

Sergio Tulentsev · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-28T10:46:52.890

949

(note: this is answer to original version of the question, which did not have requirements for "default")

You can ask it to be pretty.

db.collection.find().pretty()

edited Oct 28 '13 at 10:46

answered Feb 05 '12 at 03:19

Sergio Tulentsev

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If you want output colorized + other enhancements check out https://github.com/TylerBrock/mongo-hacker @SAFX – Ryan Schumacher Oct 10 '12 at 22:42
Now: how do you print it from external javascript loaded into Mongo? This will not work... – Witold Kaczurba May 13 '19 at 06:46
Eureka!!!!!!!!! – HubertBlu Apr 11 '23 at 11:18

score 437 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 09 '12 at 14:51

437

You can add

DBQuery.prototype._prettyShell = true

to your file in $HOME/.mongorc.js to enable pretty print globally by default.

edited Jul 09 '12 at 14:51

Sergio Tulentsev

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answered Jul 09 '12 at 14:47

staackuser2

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You'll want to make a custom function that disables it for you. Add this to your `$HOME/.mongorc.js`: https://gist.github.com/mathrawka/6239405 Then you can do something like db.users.find().ugly() to get it without pretty print. – staackuser2 Aug 15 '13 at 09:01
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+1 This is great. For those who doesn't have a .mongorc.js file in $HOME folder; you can create this file and add commands in it. After you restart shell, it works! – previous_developer Sep 21 '13 at 11:45
How can I verify in a cli or in mongo shell that this option has been enabled? I mean, is there a special command for it, like `mongo --checkConf 'pretty'`, not by calling `db.collection.find().limit(1)` – Green Aug 23 '15 at 06:24
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@staackuser2, that link seems to be broken :( – micseydel Jun 05 '18 at 00:34
This should be the accepted answer as the question is pointed to: how to make this a default option. The user is already familiar with the .pretty() method but does not want to write it every time – Ariel Monaco Jul 04 '18 at 11:59
1

Would be nice if this was set to true by default – Kubie Jul 23 '19 at 21:36

score 63 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 13 '15 at 19:09

63

(note: this is answer to the updated question)

You can just do this on the CLI:

echo DBQuery.prototype._prettyShell = true >> ~/.mongorc.js

And it's always going to output pretty results.

edited Dec 13 '15 at 19:09

Sergio Tulentsev

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answered Feb 05 '14 at 13:50

Bhanu Chawla

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This worked for me perfectly. | MongoDB shell version: 2.6.7 and Oh-My-Zsh [version e55c715](https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/tree/e55c715508a2f652fed741f2047c66dda2c6e5b0) – tjfwalker Feb 27 '15 at 00:23

score 23 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 01 '13 at 06:39

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Since it is basically a javascript shell, you can also use toArray():

db.collection.find().toArray()

However, this will print all the documents of the collection unlike pretty() that will allow you to iterate. Refer: http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/method/cursor.toArray/

answered Feb 01 '13 at 06:39

Aafreen Sheikh

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Interestingly enough, from the console the `.toArray()` function outputs better formatted JSON than the `.pretty()` function. ie: The first record of my collection is different than the rest (which may be the problem), but `.pretty()` dumps it out as `{ "_id" : "VERSION", "v" : "1.5" }` - all on one line, where `.toArray()` formatted it nice like the rest of the records.. – kodybrown Aug 06 '15 at 18:14

score 19 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 12 '13 at 08:03

19

Oh so i guess .pretty() is equal to:

db.collection.find().forEach(printjson);

answered Feb 12 '13 at 08:03

Goff

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score 9 · Answer 6 · answered May 06 '15 at 05:12

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Give a try to Mongo-hacker(node module), it alway prints pretty. https://github.com/TylerBrock/mongo-hacker

More it enhances mongo shell (supports only ver>2.4, current ver is 3.0), like

Colorization
Additional shell commands (count documents/count docs/etc)
API Additions (db.collection.find({ ... }).last(), db.collection.find({ ... }).reverse(), etc)
Aggregation Framework

I am using for while in production env, no problems yet.

answered May 06 '15 at 05:12

Gaurav Gandhi

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What if I don't have mongodb, just installed meteor? – pihentagy Jan 27 '16 at 17:56
Note: when you install mongo-hacker using npm, it apparently overwrites `$HOME/.mongorc.js`. – Hubro Jun 09 '16 at 11:50

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered May 13 '19 at 06:51

Got to the question but could not figure out how to print it from externally-loaded mongo. So:

This works is for console: and is prefered in console, but does not work in external mongo-loaded javascript:

db.quizes.find().pretty()

This works in external mongo-loaded javscript:

db.quizes.find().forEach(printjson)

Mohammad Heydari · Answer 8 · 2018-07-07T14:32:47.443

-1

Check this out:

db.collection.find().pretty()

edited Jul 07 '18 at 14:32

answered Mar 01 '16 at 10:19

Mohammad Heydari

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Pretty print in MongoDB shell as default

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