How to query MongoDB to test if an item exists?

Question

Does MongoDB offer a find or query method to test if an item exists based on any field value? We just want check existence, not return the full contents of the item.

Answer 1

I have simply used lodash framework - _isEmpty();

const {
    MongoClient,
    ObjectId
} = require('mongodb');
const _ = require('lodash');

MongoClient.connect(testURL, {
    useNewUrlParser: true
}, (err, client) => {
    let db = client.db('mycompany');

    if (err) {
        console.log('unable to connect to the mycompany database');
    } else {
        console.log('test connection to the database');
    };

    db.collection('employee').find({
        name: 'Test User'
    }).toArray((err, result) => {

        if (err) {
            console.log('The search errored');
        } else if (_.isEmpty(result)) {
            console.log('record not found')
        } else {
            console.log(result);
        };
    });
    client.close();
});

Answer 2

It is significantly faster to use find() + limit() because findOne() will always read + return the document if it exists. find() just returns a cursor (or not) and only reads the data if you iterate through the cursor.

db.collection.find({_id: "myId"}, {_id: 1}).limit(1)

(instead of db.collection.findOne({_id: "myId"}, {_id: 1})).

Look at more details: Checking if a document exists – MongoDB slow findOne vs find

Answer 3

I dont believe that there is a straight way of checking the existence of the item by its value. But you could do that by just retrieving only id (with field selection)

db.your_collection.find({..criteria..}, {"_id" : 1});