MongoDB: what are the differences between documents, records, and attributes?

Question

The documentation on documents seems to favor the term "document", and also refers to "database records". Elsewhere, competent MongoDB developers have apparently interchangeably used "attributes" and "records".

What is the correct/official terminology to use in various instances? Is it documented somewhere on mongodb.org?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 18 '14 at 10:37

1

The confusion is merely because many MongoDB users are not just MongoDB users but also use 100 other techs including SQL.

I personally have mixed up my language as well, it's not uncommon however document and database records are the same thing and properties, attributes and columns are the same thing as well.

It should be noted that meteor calls them attributes because they are attributes within an object in JS (most likely that's why).

answered Feb 18 '14 at 10:37

Sammaye

43,242
7
104
146

@DanDascalescu I don't beleive they are I believe they are referring to JavaScript holding of MongoDBs data – Sammaye Feb 18 '14 at 10:40
Here's another interchangeable use of ["attribute" and "record"](https://github.com/meteor/meteor/blob/47cb93671997031790ede24fc28a8c191e706ad9/docs/client/api.js#L212) in [tag:meteor] code, and I don't think they're referring to attributes within a JavaScript object. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 18 '14 at 10:43
@DanDascalescu Yeah I think that might be bad documentation – Sammaye Feb 18 '14 at 11:16

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '14 at 01:21

1

In MongoDB terminology document is a more generic term than a database record.

For example, the documentation page you linked says explicitly that database records, query selectors, update definitions, and index specifications are all documents.

answered Jul 15 '14 at 01:21

sanmai

29,083
12
64
76

MongoDB: what are the differences between documents, records, and attributes?

2 Answers2

Linked