Mongoose, find item in a documents array

Question

So I have queried a specific document by id from mongoose. That document has an array of items. This list will always be very small (less than 10 items). I was wondering if there was a way to get a specific item from the array.

Example document:

{
    _id: 1,
    name: 'some name,
    items: [{
        id: 23,
        name: 'item name 23'
    },{
        id: 24,
        name: 'item name 24'
    }]
}

From the mongoose docs I can get the items array:

doc.get('items')

From there I can iterate over the array and find what I want, which is no big deal. Just don't want to reinvent the wheel if this is provided in the framework.

If you know the position you can use the "dot notation" (e.g. 'items.0') http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/core/read-operations/#arrays — Hector Correa, Mar 25 '13 at 19:38
I don't want to find by position, I want to find by id. I.E. doc.get('items').find(23); Of course that does not exist just an example of what I am trying to do. — lostintranslation, Mar 25 '13 at 20:06
I think the solution is posted [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15213089/mongodb-mongoose-find-object-based-on-array-element-return-only-matching-array). — Volox, Jul 17 '13 at 07:34

score 14 · Answer 1 · answered May 10 '14 at 06:32

14

I think it will work.

Document.findById({docId, 'items.id': 'yourId'}, {'items.$': 1}, function(err, item){

}

answered May 10 '14 at 06:32

Leonardo

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If it worked I think you could check it as accepted answer. Thanks – Leonardo Jun 15 '14 at 06:18
is it possible to only get the requied fields? – Aryeh Armon Jun 28 '16 at 10:34
@AryehArmon I think you can include necessary fields just like you would any other query: ```{ : 1 }``` to include fieldname, and exclude the rest, and 0 to exclude a fieldname. – hoodsy Oct 24 '16 at 21:53
1

Although it worked, it would be great to get an explanation as to why. – Pedro Hoehl Carvalho Mar 24 '17 at 15:22

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 28 '15 at 12:46

2

There is an id method for doing exactly that.

doc.items.id(23)

http://mongoosejs.com/docs/subdocs.html

The solutions using find or findOne will work but involve more code and are more difficult to understand.

answered Jan 28 '15 at 12:46

naomi

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Mongoose, find item in a documents array

2 Answers2