insert¶

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Definition
Behavior
Examples
Output

Definition¶

insert¶

The insert command inserts one or more documents and returns a document containing the status of all inserts. The insert methods provided by the MongoDB drivers use this command internally.

The command has the following syntax:

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{
   insert: <collection>,
   documents: [ <document>, <document>, <document>, ... ],
   ordered: <boolean>,
   writeConcern: { <write concern> },
   bypassDocumentValidation: <boolean>,
   comment: <any>
}

The insert command takes the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`insert`	string	The name of the target collection.
`documents`	array	An array of one or more documents to insert into the named collection.
`ordered`	boolean	Optional. If `true`, then when an insert of a document fails, return without inserting any remaining documents listed in the `inserts` array. If `false`, then when an insert of a document fails, continue to insert the remaining documents. Defaults to `true`.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. A document that expresses the write concern of the `insert` command. 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.
`bypassDocumentValidation`	boolean	Optional. Enables `insert` to bypass document validation during the operation. This lets you insert documents that do not meet the validation requirements.
`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.

Returns:	A document that contains the status of the operation. See Output for details.

Behavior¶

Size Limit¶

The total size of all the documents array elements must be less than or equal to the maximum BSON document size.

The total number of documents in the documents array must be less than or equal to the maximum bulk size.

Document Validation¶

The insert command adds support for the bypassDocumentValidation option, which lets you bypass document validation when inserting or updating documents in a collection with validation rules.

Transactions¶

insert can be used inside multi-document transactions.

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.

Collection Creation in Transactions¶

Starting in MongoDB 4.4, you can create collections and indexes inside a multi-document transaction if the transaction is :red:`not` a cross-shard write transaction.

Specifically, in MongoDB 4.4 and greater, if you specify an insert on a non-existing collection in a transaction, the collection is implicitly created.

In MongoDB 4.4 and earlier, the operation must be run on an existing collection.

Write Concerns and 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.

Examples¶

Insert a Single Document¶

Insert a document into the users collection:

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db.runCommand(
   {
      insert: "users",
      documents: [ { _id: 1, user: "abc123", status: "A" } ]
   }
)

The returned document shows that the command successfully inserted a document. See Output for details.

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

Bulk Insert¶

Insert three documents into the users collection:

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db.runCommand(
   {
      insert: "users",
      documents: [
         { _id: 2, user: "ijk123", status: "A" },
         { _id: 3, user: "xyz123", status: "P" },
         { _id: 4, user: "mop123", status: "P" }
      ],
      ordered: false,
      writeConcern: { w: "majority", wtimeout: 5000 }
   }
)

The returned document shows that the command successfully inserted the three documents. See Output for details.

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

Using Insert with `bypassDocumentValidation`¶

If schema validation validationActions are set to error, inserts to a collection return errors for documents that violate the schema validation rules. To insert documents which would violate these rules set bypassDocumentValidation: true.

Create the user collection with a validation rule on the status fields.

The validation rule validates that the status must be “Unknown” or “Incomplete”:

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db.createCollection("users", {
   validator:
      {
         status: {
            $in: [ "Unknown", "Incomplete" ]
         }
      }
})

Attempt to insert a document which violates the validation rule:

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db.runCommand({
      insert: "users",
      documents: [ {user: "123", status: "Active" } ]
})

The insert returns a write error message:

{
   n: 0,
   writeErrors: [
      {
         index: 0,
         code: 121,
         errInfo: {
            failingDocumentId: ObjectId('6197a7f2d84e85d1cc90d270'),
            details: {
               operatorName: '$in',
               specifiedAs: { status: { '$in': [Array] } },
               reason: 'no matching value found in array',
               consideredValue: 'Active'
            }
         },
         errmsg: 'Document failed validation'
      }
   ],
   ok: 1
}

Set bypassDocumentValidation : true and rerun the insert:

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db.runCommand({
   insert: "users",
   documents: [ {user: "123", status: "Active" } ],
   bypassDocumentValidation: true
})

The operation succeeds.

To check for documents that violate schema validation rules, use the validate command.

Output¶

The returned document contains a subset of the following fields:

insert.ok¶: The status of the command.

insert.n¶: The number of documents inserted.

insert.writeErrors¶

An array of documents that contains information regarding any error encountered during the insert operation. The writeErrors array contains an error document for each insert that errors.

Each error document contains the following fields:

insert.writeErrors.index¶: An integer that identifies the document in the documents array, which uses a zero-based index.

insert.writeErrors.code¶: An integer value identifying the error.

insert.writeErrors.errmsg¶: A description of the error.

insert.writeConcernError¶

Document that describe error related to write concern and contains the field:

insert.writeConcernError.code¶: An integer value identifying the cause of the write concern error.

insert.writeConcernError.errmsg¶: A description of the cause of the write concern error.

insert.writeConcernError.errInfo.writeConcern¶

New in version 4.4.

The write concern object used for the corresponding operation. For information on write concern object fields, see Write Concern Specification.

The write concern object may also contain the following field, indicating the source of the write concern:

insert.writeConcernError.errInfo.writeConcern.provenance¶

A string value indicating where the write concern originated (known as write concern provenance). The following table shows the possible values for this field and their significance:

Provenance	Description
`clientSupplied`	The write concern was specified in the application.
`customDefault`	The write concern originated from a custom defined default value. See `setDefaultRWConcern`.
`getLastErrorDefaults`	The write concern originated from the replica set’s `settings.getLastErrorDefaults` field.
`implicitDefault`	The write concern originated from the server in absence of all other write concern specifications.

The following is an example document returned for a successful insert of a single document:

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{ ok: 1, n: 1 }

The following is an example document returned for an insert of two documents that successfully inserted one document but encountered an error with the other document:

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{
   "ok" : 1,
   "n" : 1,
   "writeErrors" : [
      {
         "index" : 1,
         "code" : 11000,
         "errmsg" : "insertDocument :: caused by :: 11000 E11000 duplicate key error index: test.users.$_id_  dup key: { : 1.0 }"
      }
   ]
}

← getMore resetError →

insert¶

Definition¶

Behavior¶

Size Limit¶

Document Validation¶

Transactions¶

Collection Creation in Transactions¶

Write Concerns and Transactions¶

Examples¶

Insert a Single Document¶

Bulk Insert¶

Using Insert with bypassDocumentValidation¶

Output¶

Using Insert with `bypassDocumentValidation`¶