How does the MongoDB aggregation pipeline work?

The following diagram illustrates a typical MongoDB aggregation pipeline.

$match stage – filters those documents we need to work with, those that fit our needs
$group stage – does the aggregation job
$sort stage – sorts the resulting documents the way we require (ascending or
descending)

Aggregation functions in MongoDB

There is a need to perform aggregate operations on between/among collections in

mongoDB.

There is an employee collection which holds documents mentioned below.

use employeedatabase

db.employee.insert([

{"name":"Employee1", "salary":40000},

{"name":"Employee2", "salary":30000},

{"name":"Employee3", "salary":50000}

]);

1. $count is used to get number of documents in collections. It is equivalent

to COUNT() function in mysql.
db.employee.aggregate([{$count:"Total No. of employees:"}]);

Output:Total No. of employees: 3

2. $match is used to filter number of documents from a collection. It is

equivalent to WHERE in mysql.
db.employee.aggregate([{$match:{salary:{$gte:40000}}}]); or
db.employee.aggregate({$match:{salary:{$gte:40000}}});
Output:
[
{"_id":1, "name":"Employee1", "salary":40000},
{"_id":2, "name":"Employee3", "salary":50000}
]

3. $project is used to select number of columns from a document. It is similar to

SELECT in mysql.

db.employee.aggregate([{$project:{_id:0, name:1, salary:1}}]); or

db.employee.aggregate({$project:{_id:0, name:1, salary:1}});

Output:
[
{"name":"Employee1", "salary":40000},
{"name":"Employee2", "salary":30000},
{"name":"Employee3", "salary":50000}
]

4. $skip is used to skip specified number of documents.

db.employee.aggregate([{$skip:1}]); or
db.employee.aggregate({$skip:1});

Output:
[
{"_id":2, "name":"Employee2", "salary":30000},
{"_id":3, "name":"Employee3", "salary":50000}
]

Explanation:- It skips the specified number of documents.

5. $limit is used to limit number of document(s). It is similar to LIMIT in mysql.

db.employee.aggregate([{$limit:1}]); or
db.employee.aggregate({$limit:1});
Output:
[

{"_id":1, name:"Employee1", salary:50000}

Explanation:- It limits the number of documnets to be fetched from the collection.

6. $sort is used to sort document as per specified column(s). It is similar to

ORDER BY in mysql.
db.employee.aggregate([{$sort:{salary:-1}}]);

Output:

[
 {"_id":"3", name:"Employee3", salary:50000},

{"_id":"1", name:"Employee1", salary:40000},

{"_id":"2", name:"Employee2", salary:30000}

Explanation:- The 1 is used for ascending Order and -1 for descending Order. It
sorts documents by salary column name in employee collection.

7. $group is used for multiple purposes.

7.1. To get total number of documents in a collection

db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:null, "Total No. Of Employees:":{$sum:1}}}]); or

db.employee.aggregate({$group:{_id:null, "Total No. Of Employees":{$sum:1}}});

Output: {"_id":null, "Total No. Of Employees":3}

Explanation:- It gets total number of employees in employee collection. In this

example, there are only three employees. If one(1) as value is passed in $sum
function then it gets total number of documents in a collection.

7.2. To get sum of salary of all documents in a collection.

db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:null, "Total Salary":{$sum:"$salary"}}}]);

Output: {_id:null, "Total Salary": 120000}

Explanation:- It gets sum of total number of employees on the basis of salary column.
In this example, salary column of employee collection is used to calculate some of all
employees in the collection.

7.3. To get Average of salary of employees in a collection.

db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:null, "Average Salary":{$avg:"$salary"}}}]);

Output: {_id:null, "Total Salary": 40000}

Explanation:- It gets average salary of total number of employees in the collection

using salary column.
In this example, salary column of employee collection is used to calculate average
salary in the collection.

7.4. To get Max Salary of an employee in collection.

db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:null, "Max Salary":{$max:"$salary"}}}]);

Output: {_id:null, “Total Salary”: 50000}

Explanation:- It gets maximum salary in the employee collection.

In this example, salary column of employee collection is used to calculate maximum
salary in the collection.
7.5. To get Min Salary of an employee in collection.
db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:null, "Min Salary":{$min:"$salary"}}}]);

Output: {_id:null, "Min Salary": 30000}

Explanation:- It gets minimum salary in the employee collection.

In this example, salary column of employee collection is used to calculate minimum
salary in the collection.

7.6. To get count by a column name

db.employee.aggregate([{$group:{_id:"$name", "Total No. Of Employees":{$sum:1}}}]);
or
db.employee.aggregate({$group:{_id:"$name", "Total No. Of Employees":{$sum:1}}});

Output:
[
{"_id":"Employee1", "Total No. Of Employees":1},
{"_id":"Employee2", "Total No. Of Employees":1},
{"_id":"Employee3", "Total No. Of Employees":1}
]

Explanation:- It gets total number of employees on the basis of specified column.

In this example, name column is used to calculate to total number of employees in the
collection.

8. $unwind is used to unwind document(s) in embeded relationship. This document is

stored in a student collection.

{_id:10, name:"Employee4", salary:50000, courses:["Java", "JavaScript", "MySQL"]}

db.student.aggregate([{$unwind:"$courses"}]); or

db.student.aggregate({$unwind:"$courses"});

Output:
[
{_id:10, name:"Employee4", salary:50000, course: "Java"},
{_id:10, name:"Employee4", salary:50000, course: "JavaScript"},
{_id:10, name:"Employee4", salary:50000, course: "MySQL"}
]

Explanation:- Employee bearing id 10 named as Employee4 has many courses. If

one wants to get same number of documents as one having number of courses, it is
sorted by $unwind aggregate function in MongoDB. The output is displaying same
number of documents as one has number of courses.

9. $lookup is used to perform join between two collections.

student collection:-
[
{_id:10, name:"Employee 1", student_id:1},
{_id:11, name:"Employee 2", student_id:2},
{_id:12, name:"Employee 3", student_id:3}
]

student_address collection:-
[
{_id:20, address:"Address 1", student_id:1},
{_id:21, address:"Address 1", student_id:1},
{_id:22, address:"Address 2", student_id:2},
{_id:23, address:"Address 2", student_id:2},
{_id:24, address:"Address 3", student_id:3},
{_id:25, address:"Address 3", student_id:3}
]

db.student.aggregate([
{
$lookup:{
localField:"student_id",
from:"student_address",
foreignField:"student_id",
as:"student_info"
}
}
]);

Output:
[
{
_id:10,
name:"Employee 1",
student_id:1,
student_info:[
{_id:20, address:"Address 1",
student_id:1},
{_id:21, address:"Address 1",
student_id:1}
]
},

{
_id:11,
name:"Employee 2",
student_id:2,
student_info:[
{_id:22, address:"Address 2",
student_id:2},
{_id:23, address:"Address 2",
student_id:2}
]
},

{
_id:12,
 name:"Employee 3",
student_id:3,
student_info:[
{_id:24, address:"Address 3",
student_id:3},
{_id:25, address:"Address 3",
student_id:3}
]
}
]

Explanation1:- The $lookup aggregate function takes a json object which includes
many properties.

localField: This is the id from current collection that would be used to lookup
documents. In this example that is student_id.

from: This is the another collection with whcih we want ot perform join operation. In
this example this is student_address.

foriegnField: This is the id from another collection which is used to perform join
operation between/among collection(s).

as: This is the name given to matched number of documents after joining operations.
In this example, student_info would be given name.

Explanation2:- While joining opertion is being performed between/among collections.

It finds matched documents and all documents that are found in joined collection put
into an array and this array can be found with specified property(student_info) in first
collection document. There are two documents matched in student_address collection
corresponding to each document in student collection. So it gets both matched
documents from student_address collection and place with specified key(student_info)
in document of student collection.