MongoDB: How to update multiple documents with a single command?

Question

I was surprised to find that the following example code only updates a single document:

> db.test.save({"_id":1, "foo":"bar"});
> db.test.save({"_id":2, "foo":"bar"});

> db.test.update({"foo":"bar"}, {"$set":{"test":"success!"}});

> db.test.find({"test":"success!"}).count();
1

I know I can loop through and keep updating until they're all changed, but that seems terribly inefficient. Is there a better way?

score 328 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 15 '17 at 16:51

328

Multi update was added recently, so is only available in the development releases (1.1.3). From the shell you do a multi update by passing true as the fourth argument to update(), where the the third argument is the upsert argument:

db.test.update({foo: "bar"}, {$set: {test: "success!"}}, false, true);

For versions of mongodb 2.2+ you need to set option multi true to update multiple documents at once.

db.test.update({foo: "bar"}, {$set: {test: "success!"}}, {multi: true})

For versions of mongodb 3.2+ you can also use new method updateMany() to update multiple documents at once, without the need of separate multi option.

db.test.updateMany({foo: "bar"}, {$set: {test: "success!"}})

edited Sep 15 '17 at 16:51

Alex Blex

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answered Nov 16 '09 at 05:30

mdirolf

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3

I'm not sure about when this change happened but, Mongodb v2.2.2 does this a bit differently. db.collection.update( , , ) where options is a set of key value pairs. See documentation: http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/applications/update/ – TechplexEngineer Dec 23 '12 at 15:08
11

what if I want set set different values to different document? is there a alegant way of doing this? – zach Aug 15 '13 at 04:09
How to do it for oldvalue+"some string" – Mahesh K Nov 14 '17 at 11:03
`update_many` for pymongo. smh. – ajsp Dec 14 '22 at 01:55

user602525 · Answer 2 · 2019-10-08T17:25:52.773

Starting in v3.3 You can use updateMany

db.collection.updateMany(
   <filter>,
   <update>,
   {
     upsert: <boolean>,
     writeConcern: <document>,
     collation: <document>,
     arrayFilters: [ <filterdocument1>, ... ]
   }
)

In v2.2, the update function takes the following form:

 db.collection.update(
   <query>,
   <update>,
   { upsert: <boolean>, multi: <boolean> }
)

https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/method/db.collection.update/

zero · Answer 3 · 2014-11-14T15:09:09.723

18

For Mongo version > 2.2, add a field multi and set it to true

db.Collection.update({query}, 
                 {$set: {field1: "f1", field2: "f2"}},
                 {multi: true })

edited Nov 14 '14 at 15:09

answered Oct 30 '14 at 06:43

zero

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score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 08 '13 at 14:10

9

I've created a way to do this with a better interface.

db.collection.find({ ... }).update({ ... }) -- multi update
db.collection.find({ ... }).replace({ ... }) -- single replacement
db.collection.find({ ... }).upsert({ ... }) -- single upsert
db.collection.find({ ... }).remove() -- multi remove

You can also apply limit, skip, sort to the updates and removes by chaining them in beforehand.

If you are interested, check out Mongo-Hacker

answered Jan 08 '13 at 14:10

Tyler Brock

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TypeError: db.getCollection(...).find(...).update is not a function : ? – Anthony Jan 06 '17 at 05:45
1

didn't worked `db.userActivity.find({ 'appId' : 1234, 'status' : 1}).update({ $set: { 'status': 1 } }); 2017-06-05T17:47:10.038+0530 E QUERY [thread1] TypeError: db.userActivity.find(...).update is not a function :` – Prakash P Jun 05 '17 at 12:17
1

@Tyler explained, that the syntax he proposes works with the Mongo-Hacker he built - not out of the box. – Nico Aug 04 '21 at 09:17

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 15 '20 at 06:04

7

To Update Entire Collection,

db.getCollection('collection_name').update({},
{$set: {"field1" : "value1", "field2" : "value2", "field3" : "value3"}},
{multi: true })

answered Mar 15 '20 at 06:04

Isuru Amarathunga

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score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 20 '16 at 23:52

5

In the MongoDB Client, type:

db.Collection.updateMany({}, $set: {field1: 'field1', field2: 'field2'})

New in version 3.2

Params::

{}:  select all records updated

Keyword argument multi not taken

answered Jun 20 '16 at 23:52

Boseam

165
2
2

Yathish Manjunath · Answer 7 · 2015-07-23T05:49:06.020

MongoDB will find only one matching document which matches the query criteria when you are issuing an update command, whichever document matches first happens to be get updated, even if there are more documents which matches the criteria will get ignored.

so to overcome this we can specify "MULTI" option in your update statement, meaning update all those documnets which matches the query criteria. scan for all the documnets in collection finding those which matches the criteria and update :

db.test.update({"foo":"bar"},{"$set":{"test":"success!"}}, {multi:true} )

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 05 '21 at 11:35

The updateMany() method has the following form:

db.collection.updateMany(
   <filter>,
   <update>,
   {
     upsert: <boolean>,
     writeConcern: <document>,
     collation: <document>,
     arrayFilters: [ <filterdocument1>, ... ],
     hint:  <document|string>        // Available starting in MongoDB 4.2.1
   }
)

The restaurant collection contains the following documents:

{ "_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:

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

Sachintha Nayanajith · Answer 9 · 2020-01-14T17:20:18.840

3

The following command can update multiple records of a collection

db.collection.update({}, 
{$set:{"field" : "value"}}, 
{ multi: true, upsert: false}
)

edited Jan 14 '20 at 17:20

answered Jan 14 '20 at 11:44

Sachintha Nayanajith

660
5
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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 25 '17 at 13:55

2

All latest versions of mongodb updateMany() is working fine

db.getCollection('workers').updateMany({},{$set: {"assignedVehicleId" : "45680"}});

answered Dec 25 '17 at 13:55

KARTHIKEYAN.A

18,210
6
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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 27 '15 at 14:31

I had the same problem , and i found the solution , and it works like a charm

just set the flag multi to true like this :

 db.Collection.update(
                {_id_receiver: id_receiver},
               {$set: {is_showed: true}},
                {multi: true}   /* --> multiple update */
            , function (err, updated) {...});

i hope that helps :)

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 24 '16 at 12:27

You can use.`

        Model.update({
            'type': "newuser"
        }, {
            $set: {
                email: "abc@gmail.com",
                phoneNumber:"0123456789"
            }
        }, {
            multi: true
        },
        function(err, result) {
            console.log(result);
            console.log(err);
        })  `

Athar · Answer 13 · 2018-05-08T13:37:50.267

-1

Thanks for sharing this, I used with 2.6.7 and following query just worked,

for all docs:

db.screen.update({stat:"PRO"} , {$set : {stat:"pro"}}, {multi:true})

for single doc:

db.screen.update({stat:"PRO"} , {$set : {stat:"pro"}}, {multi:false})

edited May 08 '18 at 13:37

answered Feb 07 '15 at 15:59

Athar

579
5
12

MongoDB: How to update multiple documents with a single command?

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