Importing and exporting to CSV

Question

Trying to import or export from MongoDB command line :

> mongoimport --db denistest --collection things --type csv --file C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/csv_data.csv

I get :

JavaScript execution failed: SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier

What is wrong here?

"denis","omeri","21","Tirana","1","http:/google.com","m" "olgert","llojko","20","Prrenjas","2","http:/facebook.com","m" — Denis Omeri, Mar 28 '13 at 10:50
If you just try those lines, does it work? Did you happen to try this suggestion: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4686500/how-to-use-mongoimport-to-import-csv — WiredPrairie, Mar 28 '13 at 10:56
I made a new csv file with just those two lines and still not working. Other commands (like show databases, use, find ect) are successfully executed. — Denis Omeri, Mar 28 '13 at 11:04
I have tried it after adding column names in the first line of csv but still same problem. I thinks problem is in this line: `> mongoimport --db denistest --collection things --type csv --file C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/csv_data.csv` — Denis Omeri, Mar 28 '13 at 11:16

score 27 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 30 '13 at 11:18

I finally found the problem. I was executing my command in mongo.exe. ( I opened C:\mongodb\bin>mongo and the executed my command )

C:\mongodb\bin>mongo
MongoDB shell version: 2.4.0
connecting to: test
>
> mongoimport --db denistestcsv --collection things --type csv --fields First,La
st,Visits,Location,Number,Url,Letter --file E:\temp\csv1.csv

But this is wrong. The correct way is going to mongo => bin => and then executing command without entering mongo.exe

C:\mongodb\bin>mongoimport --db denistestcsv --collection things --type csv --fi
elds First,Last,Visits,Location,Number,Url,Letter --file E:\temp\csv1.csv

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '13 at 12:50

Using your sample data, saved into a file called csv1.csv:

"denis","omeri","21","Tirana","1","http:/google.com","m" 
"olgert","llojko","20","Prrenjas","2","http:/facebook.com","m"

I ran the following command line (split for readability here, with made-up field names):

mongoimport --db test 
    --collection things 
    --type csv 
    --fields First,Last,Visits,Location,Number,Url,Letter 
    --file d:\temp\csv1.csv

And it imports successfully:

connected to: 127.0.0.1
Thu Mar 28 07:43:53.902 imported 2 objects

And in the things DB:

> db.things.find()
{ "_id" : ObjectId("51543b09d39aaa258e7c12ee"), 
     "First" : "denis", "Last" : "omeri", "Visits" : 21, 
     "Location" : "Tirana", 
     "Number" : 1, "Url" : "http:/google.com", "Letter" : "m" }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("51543b09d39aaa258e7c12ef"), 
     "First" : "olgert", "Last" : "llojko", "Visits" : 20, 
     "Location" : "Prrenjas", 
     "Number" : 2, "Url" : "http:/facebook.com", "Letter" : "m" }

(I couldn't get the header row option working in 2.4 for CSV files for some reason, but the option of specifying the fields on the command-line works as well. You can also use a file that contains just the field names by using the fieldFile command line option)

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 22 '16 at 04:24

Building off of Dennis Omeri's answer, I had a similar problem trying to make a remote connection to a mongolab MongoDB instance via the CLI. I had to run the command from the bin folder of MongoDB as well, but it's not as straightforward as his answer makes it seem.

In my case, I installed mongodb via homebrew on OSX (brew install mongodb assuming you have homebrew installed). That put my mongo system files in: /usr/local/cellar/mongodb/3.0.3/bin (sub in your version of mongo and the path should be good).

Then, locate the following items:

mongolab URL (should be something like ds123456-a.mongolab.com)
port number (probably 27799 or 2####)
database user (you will have to set this up in mongolab)
database password (set this up in mongolab as well)

You can then connect to mongolab using the following string
mongo ds123456.mongolab.com:27799/dbname -u dbuser -p dbpassword

Also note: in my case, I had setup mongolab via a Heroku add-on. This means you have to authenticate through the heroku dashboard to gain access to your mongolab db user/pw setup area. None of this is really documented anywhere I could find, so I'm adding this answer in to help the next soul who wanders into this mess.

Importing and exporting to CSV

3 Answers3

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