count¶

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Definition
Syntax
Stable API Support
Behavior
Examples

Definition¶

count¶: Counts the number of documents in a collection or a view. Returns a document that contains this count and as well as the command status.

Note

MongoDB drivers compatible with the 4.0 features deprecate their respective cursor and collection count() APIs (which runs the count command) in favor of new APIs that corresponds to countDocuments() and estimatedDocumentCount(). For the specific API names for a given driver, see the driver API documentation.

Syntax¶

The command has the following syntax:

Note

Starting in version 4.2, MongoDB implements a stricter validation of the option names for the count command. The command now errors if you specify an unknown option name.

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db.runCommand(
   {
     count: <collection or view>,
     query: <document>,
     limit: <integer>,
     skip: <integer>,
     hint: <hint>,
     readConcern: <document>,
     collation: <document>,
     comment: <any>
   }
)

Command Fields¶

count has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`count`	string	The name of the collection or view to count.
`query`	document	Optional. A query that selects which documents to count in the collection or view.
`limit`	integer	Optional. The maximum number of matching documents to return.
`skip`	integer	Optional. The number of matching documents to skip before returning results.
`hint`	string or document	Optional. The index to use. Specify either the index name as a string or the index specification document.
`readConcern`	document	Optional. Specifies the read concern. The option has the following syntax: copy readConcern: { level: <value> } Possible read concern levels are: `"local"`. This is the default read concern level for read operations against the primary and secondaries. `"available"`. Available for read operations against the primary and secondaries. `"available"` behaves the same as `"local"` against the primary and non-sharded secondaries. The query returns the instance’s most recent data. `"majority"`. Available for replica sets that use WiredTiger storage engine. `"linearizable"`. Available for read operations on the `primary` only. For more formation on the read concern levels, see Read Concern Levels.
`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: copy collation: { locale: <string>, caseLevel: <boolean>, caseFirst: <string>, strength: <int>, numericOrdering: <boolean>, alternate: <string>, maxVariable: <string>, backwards: <boolean> } When specifying collation, the `locale` field 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.
`comment`	any	Optional. A user-provided comment to attach to this command. Once set, this comment appears alongside records of this command in the following locations: mongod log messages, in the `attr.command.cursor.comment` field. Database profiler output, in the `command.comment` field. `currentOp` output, in the `command.comment` field. A comment can be any valid BSON type (string, integer, object, array, etc). New in version 4.4.

mongosh also provides the following wrapper methods for count:

Stable API Support¶

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, the count command is included in Stable API V1. To use the count command in the Stable API, you must connect your driver to a deployment that is running MongoDB 6.0 or greater.

Behavior¶

Inaccurate Counts Without Query Predicate¶

When you call count without a query predicate, you may receive inaccurate document counts. Without a query predicate, count commands return results based on the collection’s metadata, which may result in an approximate count. In particular,

On a sharded cluster, the resulting count will not correctly filter out orphaned documents.
After an unclean shutdown or file copy based initial sync, the count may be incorrect.

For counts based on collection metadata, see also collStats pipeline stage with the count option.

Count and Transactions¶

You cannot use count and shell helpers count() and db.collection.count() in transactions.

For details, see Transactions and Count Operations.

Accuracy and Sharded Clusters¶

On a sharded cluster, the count command when run without a query predicate can result in an inaccurate count if orphaned documents exist or if a chunk migration is in progress.

To avoid these situations, on a sharded cluster, use the db.collection.aggregate() method:

You can use the $count stage to count the documents. For example, the following operation counts the documents in a collection:

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db.collection.aggregate( [
   { $count: "myCount" }
])

The $count stage is equivalent to the following $group + $project sequence:

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db.collection.aggregate( [
   { $group: { _id: null, count: { $sum: 1 } } }
   { $project: { _id: 0 } }
] )

Accuracy after Unexpected Shutdown¶

After an unclean shutdown of a mongod using the Wired Tiger storage engine, count statistics reported by count may be inaccurate.

The amount of drift depends on the number of insert, update, or delete operations performed between the last checkpoint and the unclean shutdown. Checkpoints usually occur every 60 seconds. However, mongod instances running with non-default --syncdelay settings may have more or less frequent checkpoints.

Run validate on each collection on the mongod to restore statistics after an unclean shutdown.

After an unclean shutdown:

validate updates the count statistic in the collStats output with the latest value.
Other statistics like the number of documents inserted or removed in the collStats output are estimates.

Note

This loss of accuracy only applies to count operations that do not include a query document.

Client Disconnection¶

Starting in MongoDB 4.2, if the client that issued count disconnects before the operation completes, MongoDB marks count for termination using killOp.

Examples¶

The following sections provide examples of the count command.

Count All Documents¶

The following operation counts the number of all documents in the orders collection:

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db.runCommand( { count: 'orders' } )

In the result, the n, which represents the count, is 26, and the command status ok is 1:

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{ "n" : 26, "ok" : 1 }

Count Documents That Match a Query¶

The following operation returns a count of the documents in the orders collection where the value of the ord_dt field is greater than Date('01/01/2012'):

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db.runCommand( { count:'orders',
                 query: { ord_dt: { $gt: new Date('01/01/2012') } }
               } )

In the result, the n, which represents the count, is 13 and the command status ok is 1:

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{ "n" : 13, "ok" : 1 }

Skip Documents in Count¶

The following operation returns a count of the documents in the orders collection where the value of the ord_dt field is greater than Date('01/01/2012') and skip the first 10 matching documents:

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db.runCommand( { count:'orders',
                 query: { ord_dt: { $gt: new Date('01/01/2012') } },
                 skip: 10 }  )

In the result, the n, which represents the count, is 3 and the command status ok is 1:

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{ "n" : 3, "ok" : 1 }

Specify the Index to Use¶

The following operation uses the index { status: 1 } to return a count of the documents in the orders collection where the value of the ord_dt field is greater than Date('01/01/2012') and the status field is equal to "D":

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db.runCommand(
   {
     count:'orders',
     query: {
              ord_dt: { $gt: new Date('01/01/2012') },
              status: "D"
            },
     hint: { status: 1 }
   }
)

In the result, the n, which represents the count, is 1 and the command status ok is 1:

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{ "n" : 1, "ok" : 1 }

Override Default Read Concern¶

To override the default read concern level of "local", use the readConcern option.

The following operation on a replica set specifies a Read Concern of "majority" to read the most recent copy of the data confirmed as having been written to a majority of the nodes.

Important

To use the readConcern level of "majority", you must specify a nonempty query condition.
Regardless of the read concern level, the most recent data on a node may not reflect the most recent version of the data in the system.

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db.runCommand(
   {
     count: "restaurants",
     query: { rating: { $gte: 4 } },
     readConcern: { level: "majority" }
   }
)

To ensure that a single thread can read its own writes, use "majority" read concern and "majority" write concern against the primary of the replica set.

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