MongoDB Remove Method (Day 10)

CBefore reading this article, I highly recommend reading the previous installments in the series:

Parameter	Type	Description
Query	Document	Specify the deletion criteria
justone	Boolean	Optional, the default value is false. Remove a single document if set to true otherwise delete all the documents matching the deletion criteria.

Return Type

The remove() returns an object containing the status of the operation. The remove() method returns a WriteResult object that contains the status of the operation. The WriteResult object is an integer type that returns the number of documents removed.

Now, we consider some examples and examine the behavior of the remove() method.

1. Create a collection

Code

Result



Now insert some documents into the “Demo” collection.
Structure of “Demo” collection



Remove all document from collection

To remove all the documents in a collection, use the remove method with an empty query document {}.

Query
Collection after Query

This query removes all the documents from the “Demo” collection.



Note that the remove() and drop() methods are not the same. The Drop() method drops an entire collection including its structure and index, but the remove() method deletes only the documents from the collection.

Remove all Documents that Match the Deletion Criteria

To remove all the documents that match a certain criteria, use the <query> parameter and apply the deletion criteria.

Query
This query removes all the documents where the value of the “Price” field is greater than 350 and less than 2001.

Collection after Query



Remove Single Document

To remove the first document that matches a deletion criteria, use the “justOne” parameter of the remove() method. Set the value of the “justOne” parameter to true or 1.

Query
This removes the first document that matches the deletion criteria.

Collection after Query



Remove method with Capped Collection

We can't delete a specific document from a capped collection. To remove all documents from a collection, use the drop() method to drop the collection.

Let's see an example:



In the preceding example, we tried to use the remove method with a capped collection so MongoDB throws an error. To remove all documents from a collection, use the drop() method.

Use Isolated option with remove operation

During the removal of multiple documents, the remove operation may interleave with other read and write operations of the collection. To override this behavior, use the “$isolated” option. The isolated option ensures that no client can see the affected documents until they are all processed or an error stops the removal operation. To use the isolate behavior in the remove method, set the “$isolated” parameter to 1 or true.

Example