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CRUD Operations

Update Documents

On this page

  • Overview
  • Update Operation Parameters
  • Examples
  • Update One Example
  • Update Many Example

Overview

In this guide, you can learn how to update documents in a MongoDB collection. Update operations specify the fields and values to change in one or more documents. They apply changes specified in an update document to one or more documents that match your query filter.

To learn how to updated embedded arrays or to update or insert in a single operation, see the following pages:

  • Update Arrays in a Document

  • Insert or Update in a Single Operation

Update operations can modify fields and values:

  • The updateOne() method changes the first document your query filter matches and the

  • updateMany() method changes all the documents your query filter matches.

You can call the updateOne() and updateMany() methods on a MongoCollection instance as follows:

collection.updateOne(<query>, <updateDocument>);
collection.updateMany(<query>, <updateDocument>);

Update Operation Parameters

The updateOne() and updateMany() methods both have the following parameters:

  • query specifies a query filter with the criteria to match documents to update in your collection.

  • update specifies the fields and values to modify in the matching document or documents. The examples in this section use the Updates Builders to create the update document.

  • (Optional) updateOptions specifies options that you can set to customize how the driver performs the update operation. To learn more about this type, see the API documentation for UpdateOptions.

You can create the updateDocument using an Updates builder as follows:

Bson update = Updates.operator(<field>, <value>);

To view a complete list of Updates builders and their usage, see Updates in the API documentation.

Examples

In the following examples, a paint store sells five different colors of paint. The paint_inventory collection represents their current inventory:

{ "_id": 1, "color": "red", "qty": 5 }
{ "_id": 2, "color": "purple", "qty": 8 }
{ "_id": 3, "color": "yellow", "qty": 0 }
{ "_id": 4, "color": "green", "qty": 6 }
{ "_id": 5, "color": "pink", "qty": 0 }

Update One Example

The following example demonstrates how to change the value of the color field in the first matching document in which the value of qty is 0:

Bson filter = Filters.eq("qty", 0);
Bson update = Updates.set("color", "dandelion");
// Updates first matching document
UpdateResult result = collection.updateOne(filter, update);

If multiple documents match the query filter specified in the updateOne() method, it updates the first result. You can specify a sort in an UpdateOptions instance to apply an order to matched documents before the server performs the update operation, as shown in the following code:

UpdateOptions options = UpdateOptions.sort(ascending("color"));
UpdateResult result = collection.updateOne(filter, document, options);

Update Many Example

The paint store receives a fresh shipment and needs to update their inventory. The shipment contains 20 cans of each paint color.

To update the inventory, call the updateMany() method specifying the following:

  • Query filter that matches all the colors

  • Update document that contains instructions to increment the qty field by 20

Bson filter = Filters.empty();
Bson update = Updates.inc("qty", 20);
// Updates all documents and prints the number of matched and modified documents
UpdateResult result = collection.updateMany(filter, update);
System.out.println("Matched document count: " + result.getMatchedCount());
System.out.println("Modified document count: " + result.getModifiedCount());

The output of the preceding code resembles the following:

 Matched document count: 5
 Modified document count: 5

The following shows the updated documents in the paint_inventory collection:

 { "_id": 1, "color": "red", "qty": 25 }
 { "_id": 2, "color": "purple", "qty": 28 }
 { "_id": 3, "color": "yellow", "qty": 20 }
 { "_id": 4, "color": "green", "qty": 26 }
 { "_id": 5, "color": "pink", "qty": 20 }

If zero documents match the query filter in the update operation, updateMany() makes no changes to documents in the collection. See our upsert guide to learn how to insert a new document instead of updating one if no documents match.

Important

The updateOne() and updateMany() methods cannot make changes to a document that violate unique index constraints on the collection. For more information about constraints on unique indexes, see Unique Indexes in the MongoDB Server manual.

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