1MongoDB::Tutorial(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation MongoDB::Tutorial(3)
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6 MongoDB::Tutorial - Getting started with MongoDB
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9 version v2.2.2
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12 The tutorial runs through the basic functionality of the MongoDB
13 package. This is a good starting point if you have never used MongoDB
14 before.
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16 The tutorial assumes that you are running a standalone MongoDB database
17 server (i.e. not a replica set) locally on the default port. You can
18 download MongoDB from <http://www.mongodb.org>.
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21 Document-oriented database terms and their relational equivalents:
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23 Database
24 Database
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26 Collection
27 Table
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29 Document
30 Record or row
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32 BSON::OID
33 Autoincrementing primary key
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36 To use MongoDB, you'll usually just start with:
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38 use MongoDB;
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40 The MongoDB module loads most of the modules you'll need to interact
41 with MongoDB:
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43 · MongoDB::MongoClient
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45 · MongoDB::Database
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47 · MongoDB::Collection
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49 · Query result classes like MongoDB::Cursor and MongoDB::QueryResult
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51 · Write result classes like MongoDB::InsertOneResult and
52 MongoDB::UpdateResult
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55 To get started, we have to connect to the database server. Because
56 it's running locally on the default port, we need not pass any
57 parameters to the connect method.
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59 my $client = MongoDB->connect();
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61 Now we we have a client connected to the MongoDB server. Next we need
62 a database to work with, we'll call it "tutorial". You need not do
63 anything special to create the database, MongoDB will create it on the
64 fly.
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66 my $db = $client->get_database( 'tutorial' );
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68 The last part of the preliminary setup is to choose a collection.
69 We'll be using the "users" collection to start out.
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71 my $users = $db->get_collection( 'users' );
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73 Again, there is no need to create the collection in advance, it will be
74 created as needed.
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76 The ns method is a short cut to get a MongoDB::Collection object direct
77 from the client.
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79 my $users = $client->ns("tutorial.users");
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82 Creating Documents
83 Inserting
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85 To add a document to the collection, we use the insert_one function.
86 It takes a hash reference which is saved to the collection.
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88 $users->insert_one( {
89 "name" => "Joe",
90 "age" => 52,
91 "likes" => [qw/skiing math ponies/]
92 });
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94 Now there is a user in the collection.
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96 BSON::OIDs
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98 When a document is inserted, it is given a "_id" field if one does not
99 already exist. By default, this field is a BSON::OID, 12 bytes that
100 are guaranteed to be unique. The "_id" field of the inserted document
101 is returned in a MongoDB::InsertOneResult object by the "insert_one"
102 method.
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104 my $result = $users->insert_one({"name" => "Bill"});
105 my $id = $result->inserted_id;
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107 An efficient way to insert documents is to send many at a time to the
108 database by using insert_many, which returns a
109 MongoDB::InsertManyResult describing the documents inserted.
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111 my $result = $users->insert_many(\@many_users);
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113 Retrieving Documents
114 Queries
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116 To retrieve documents that were saved to a collection, we can use the
117 find method.
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119 my $all_users = $users->find;
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121 To query for certain criteria, say, all users named Joe, pass the query
122 a hash with the key/value pair you wish to match:
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124 my $some_users = $users->find({"name" => "Joe"});
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126 You can match array elements in your queries; for example, to find all
127 users who like math:
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129 my $geeks = $users->find({"likes" => "math"});
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131 This being Perl, it is important to mention that you can also use
132 regular expressions to search for strings. If you wanted to find all
133 users with the name John and all variations of said name, you could do:
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135 my $john = $users->find({"name" => qr/joh?n/i});
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137 See "Regular Expressions" in MongoDB::DataTypes for more information.
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139 Ranges
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141 As queries are hashes, they use a special syntax to express
142 comparisons, such as "x < 4". To make the query a valid hash, MongoDB
143 uses $-prefixed terms. For example, "x < 4" could be expressed by:
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145 my $doc321 = $collection->find({'x' => { '$lt' => 4 }});
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147 Comparison operators can be combined to get a range:
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149 my $doc32 = $collection->find({'x' => { '$gte' => 2, '$lt' => 4 }});
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151 Cursors
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153 "find" returns a MongoDB::Cursor, which can be iterated over. It
154 lazily loads results from the database. The following prints all of
155 the users' names:
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157 while (my $doc = $all_users->next) {
158 print $doc->{'name'}."\n";
159 }
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161 A cursor can also be converted into an array of hash references. For
162 example, to print the "name" field of the first result:
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164 my @arr = $geeks->all;
165 print $arr[0]->{'name'}."\n";
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167 Updating Documents
168 "$"-operators
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170 To change a document after it has been saved to the database, you must
171 pass update_one (or update_many to change many documents at once) two
172 arguments. The first is a query argument, identical to the previous
173 section, to identify the document you want to change. The second is an
174 argument that describes the change that you wish to make.
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176 The change is described by $-prefixed descriptors. For example, to
177 increment a field, we would write:
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179 $users->update_one({"_id" => $id}, {'$inc' => {'age' => 1}});
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181 To add an element to an array, we can use $push. So, to add an element
182 to the "likes" array, we write:
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184 $users->update_one({"_id" => $id}, {'$push' => {'likes' => 'reading'}});
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186 To add a new field or change the type or value of an existing field, we
187 use $set. For example, to change the "name" field to a username, we
188 would say:
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190 $users->update_one({"_id" => $id}, {'$set' => {'name' => 'joe_schmoe'}});
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192 Options
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194 "update_one" and "update_many" do nothing if no document matches the
195 query.
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197 Sometimes we may want update to create an element if it does not
198 already exist. This is called an 'upsert' (a combination of an update
199 and an insert). For example, the same code could be used for creating
200 and updating a log document:
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202 $pageviews->update_one(
203 {"url" => "www.example.com"},
204 {'$inc' => {"views" => 1}},
205 {'upsert' => 1}
206 );
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208 If the pageview counter for www.example.com did not exist yet, it would
209 be created and the "views" field would be set to 1. If it did exist,
210 the "views" field would be incremented.
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212 Deleting Documents
213 To delete documents, we use the delete_one or delete_many methods.
214 They take the same type of hash queries do:
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216 $users->delete_many({"name" => "Joe"});
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218 It does not delete the collection, though (in that it will still appear
219 if the user lists collections in the database and the indexes will
220 still exist). To remove a collection entirely, call "drop":
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222 $users->drop;
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224 "drop" can also be used for whole databases:
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226 $db->drop;
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229 Database Commands
230 There is a large number of useful database commands that can be called
231 directly on $db with the run_command method.
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233 For example, you can use a database command to create a capped
234 collection like so:
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236 use boolean; # imports 'true' and 'false'
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238 my $cmd = [
239 create => "posts",
240 capped => true,
241 size => 10240,
242 max => 100
243 ];
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245 $db->run_command($cmd);
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247 This will create a capped collection called "posts" in the current
248 database. It has a maximum size of 10240 bytes and can contain up to
249 100 documents. The boolean module must be used whenever the database
250 expects an actual boolean argument (i.e. not "1" or "0").
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252 MongoDB expects commands to have key/value pairs in a certain order, so
253 you must give arguments in an array reference (or Tie::IxHash object).
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256 Now that you know the basic syntax used by the Perl driver, you should
257 be able to translate the JavaScript examples in the main MongoDB
258 documentation (<http://www.mongodb.org>) into Perl.
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260 Check out MongoDB::Examples for more examples.
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263 · David Golden <david@mongodb.com>
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265 · Rassi <rassi@mongodb.com>
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267 · Mike Friedman <friedo@friedo.com>
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269 · Kristina Chodorow <k.chodorow@gmail.com>
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271 · Florian Ragwitz <rafl@debian.org>
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274 This software is Copyright (c) 2020 by MongoDB, Inc.
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276 This is free software, licensed under:
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278 The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004
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282perl v5.32.0 2020-08-18 MongoDB::Tutorial(3)