db.collection.deleteOne()
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Definition
db.collection.deleteOne()Important
mongosh Method
This page documents a
mongoshmethod. This is not the documentation for database commands or language-specific drivers, such as Node.js.For the database command, see the
deletecommand.For MongoDB API drivers, refer to the language-specific MongoDB driver documentation.
For the legacy
mongoshell documentation, refer to the documentation for the corresponding MongoDB Server release:Removes a single document from a collection.
db.collection.deleteOne( <filter>, { writeConcern: <document>, collation: <document>, hint: <document|string> // Available starting in MongoDB 4.4 } )
Parameter Type Description filter document Specifies deletion criteria using query operators.
Specify an empty document{ }to delete the first document returned in the collection.writeConcern document Optional. A document expressing the write concern. Omit to use the default write concern.
Do not explicitly set the write concern for the operation if run in a transaction. To use write concern with transactions, see Transactions and Write Concern.collation document Optional.
Specifies the collation to use for the operation.
Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks.
The collation option has the following syntax:collation: { locale: <string>, caseLevel: <boolean>, caseFirst: <string>, strength: <int>, numericOrdering: <boolean>, alternate: <string>, maxVariable: <string>, backwards: <boolean> }When specifying collation, the
localefield is mandatory; all other collation fields are optional. For descriptions of the fields, see Collation Document.If the collation is unspecified but the collection has a default collation (see
db.createCollection()), the operation uses the collation specified for the collection.If no collation is specified for the collection or for the operations, MongoDB uses the simple binary comparison used in prior versions for string comparisons.
You cannot specify multiple collations for an operation. For example, you cannot specify different collations per field, or if performing a find with a sort, you cannot use one collation for the find and another for the sort.
hint document Optional. A document or string that specifies the index to use to support the query predicate.
The option can take an index specification document or the index name string.
If you specify an index that does not exist, the operation errors.
For an example, see Specifyhintfor Delete Operations.New in version 4.4.Returns: A document containing: - A boolean
acknowledgedastrueif the operation ran with write concern orfalseif write concern was disabled deletedCountcontaining the number of deleted documents
- A boolean
Behavior
Deletion Order
db.collection.deleteOne() deletes the first document that matches the filter. Use a field that is part of a unique index such as _id for precise deletions.
Time Series Collections
db.collection.deleteOne() returns a WriteError exception if used on a time series collection.
Sharded Collections
db.collection.deleteOne() operations on a sharded collection must include the shard key or the _id field in the query specification. db.collection.deleteOne() operations in a sharded collection which do not contain either the shard key or the _id field return an error.
Transactions
db.collection.deleteOne() can be used inside multi-document transactions.
Do not explicitly set the write concern for the operation if run in a transaction. To use write concern with transactions, see Transactions and Write Concern.
Important
In most cases, multi-document transaction incurs a greater performance cost over single document writes, and the availability of multi-document transactions should not be a replacement for effective schema design. For many scenarios, the denormalized data model (embedded documents and arrays) will continue to be optimal for your data and use cases. That is, for many scenarios, modeling your data appropriately will minimize the need for multi-document transactions.
For additional transactions usage considerations (such as runtime limit and oplog size limit), see also Production Considerations.
Examples
Delete a Single Document
The orders collection has documents with the following structure:
{
_id: ObjectId("563237a41a4d68582c2509da"),
stock: "Brent Crude Futures",
qty: 250,
type: "buy-limit",
limit: 48.90,
creationts: ISODate("2015-11-01T12:30:15Z"),
expiryts: ISODate("2015-11-01T12:35:15Z"),
client: "Crude Traders Inc."
}
The following operation deletes the order with _id:
ObjectId("563237a41a4d68582c2509da") :
try { db.orders.deleteOne( { "_id" : ObjectId("563237a41a4d68582c2509da") } ); } catch (e) { print(e); }
The operation returns:
{ "acknowledged" : true, "deletedCount" : 1 }
The following operation deletes the first document with expiryts greater than ISODate("2015-11-01T12:40:15Z")
try { db.orders.deleteOne( { "expiryts" : { $lt: ISODate("2015-11-01T12:40:15Z") } } ); } catch (e) { print(e); }
The operation returns:
{ "acknowledged" : true, "deletedCount" : 1 }
deleteOne() with Write Concern
Given a three member replica set, the following operation specifies a w of majority, wtimeout of 100:
try { db.orders.deleteOne( { "_id" : ObjectId("563237a41a4d68582c2509da") }, { w : "majority", wtimeout : 100 } ); } catch (e) { print (e); }
If the acknowledgement takes longer than the wtimeout limit, the following exception is thrown:
WriteConcernError({ "code" : 64, "errmsg" : "waiting for replication timed out", "errInfo" : { "wtimeout" : true, "writeConcern" : { // Added in MongoDB 4.4 "w" : "majority", "wtimeout" : 100, "provenance" : "getLastErrorDefaults" } } })
Tip
See also:
Specify Collation
Collation allows users to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for lettercase and accent marks.
A collection myColl has the following documents:
{ _id: 1, category: "café", status: "A" }
{ _id: 2, category: "cafe", status: "a" }
{ _id: 3, category: "cafE", status: "a" }
The following operation includes the collation option:
db.myColl.deleteOne( { category: "cafe", status: "A" }, { collation: { locale: "fr", strength: 1 } } )
Specify hint for Delete Operations
New in version 4.4.
In mongosh, create a members collection with the following documents:
db.members.insertMany([ { "_id" : 1, "member" : "abc123", "status" : "P", "points" : 0, "misc1" : null, "misc2" : null }, { "_id" : 2, "member" : "xyz123", "status" : "A", "points" : 60, "misc1" : "reminder: ping me at 100pts", "misc2" : "Some random comment" }, { "_id" : 3, "member" : "lmn123", "status" : "P", "points" : 0, "misc1" : null, "misc2" : null }, { "_id" : 4, "member" : "pqr123", "status" : "D", "points" : 20, "misc1" : "Deactivated", "misc2" : null }, { "_id" : 5, "member" : "ijk123", "status" : "P", "points" : 0, "misc1" : null, "misc2" : null }, { "_id" : 6, "member" : "cde123", "status" : "A", "points" : 86, "misc1" : "reminder: ping me at 100pts", "misc2" : "Some random comment" } ])
Create the following indexes on the collection:
db.members.createIndex( { status: 1 } ) db.members.createIndex( { points: 1 } )
The following delete operation explicitly hints to use the index { status: 1 }:
db.members.deleteOne( { "points": { $lte: 20 }, "status": "P" }, { hint: { status: 1 } } )
Note
If you specify an index that does not exist, the operation errors.
The delete command returns the following:
{ "acknowledged" : true, "deletedCount" : 1 }
To view the indexes used, you can use the $indexStats pipeline:
db.members.aggregate( [ { $indexStats: { } }, { $sort: { name: 1 } } ] )
The accesses.ops field in the $indexStats output indicates the number of operations that used the index.
Tip
See also:
To delete multiple documents, see db.collection.deleteMany()