Insert operation

The insert operation adds a new document to a collection.

Insert a single document

The insertOne() command is used to add a single document into a collection, using this syntax format:

  1. db.collection.insertOne({field1: value1, field2: value2,.... fieldN: valueN})

The example below depicts how a single document can be added to a collection. If a collection does not exist, the insert command automatically creates one.

  1. db.scientists.insertOne({
  2.   name: {
  3.     firstname: 'Thomas',
  4.     lastname: 'Edison'
  5.   },
  6.   born: 1847,
  7.   invention: 'lightbulb'
  8. })

If the operation is successful, you will get a response with acknowledged set to true, and the autogenerated ObjectId of the document that looks like this:

  1. {
  2.   acknowledged: true,
  3.   insertedId: ObjectId("6346fcafd7a4a1b0b38eb2db")
  4. }

Insert multiple documents at once

A collection can contain multiple documents. Using the insertMany() command, you can add multiple documents to a collection at once.

  1. db.collection_name.insertMany([{ document1 }, { document2 }, ...{ documentN }])

The following example shows how to insert multiple documents into a collection:

  1. db.scientists.insertMany([
  2.   {
  3.     name: {
  4.       firstname: 'Alan',
  5.       lastname: 'Turing'
  6.     },
  7.     born: 1912,
  8.     invention: 'Turing Machine'
  9.   },
  10.   {
  11.     name: {
  12.       firstname: 'Graham',
  13.       lastname: 'Bell'
  14.     },
  15.     born: 1847,
  16.     invention: 'telephone'
  17.   },
  18.   {
  19.     name: {
  20.       firstname: 'Ada',
  21.       lastname: 'Lovelace'
  22.     },
  23.     born: 1815,
  24.     invention: 'computer programming'
  25.   }
  26. ])

You can retrieve all the documents in the collection with this command: db.scientists.find({})