MongoDb query array with null values

Question

I have objects in my collection that look like:

{ MyArray:[null, \"some value\", null] }

I want to query those objects that have a null value a

Answer 1

(not really an answer, but does not fit into a comment)

I can not reproduce the problem, I copied your data to the mongo shell and tried in MongoDB versions 2.2.3, 2.4.1 and here in 2.4.0:

MongoDB shell version: 2.4.0 connecting to: test

> db.version()
2.4.0
> db.xxx.insert({
... "_id" : BinData(3,"ch9PrWveqU6niB6FGVhIOg=="),
... "PeerGroup" : "male",
... "ProductId" : BinData(3,"weRiKOtXEUSDZHkGHLcwzw=="),
... "CategoryIds" : [
... BinData(3,"BXzpwVQozECLaPkJy26t6Q=="),
... BinData(3,"ox303ZeM50KelvoUbPBJ8Q=="),
... BinData(3,"26ziaY+G9UKMyjmtVkkhcg=="),
... BinData(3,"D2X8vObte0eJHNcDfp2HBw==")
... ],
... "ShopId" : BinData(3,"ZdfPmrlKR0GkLPC4djJuKw=="),
... "BrandId" : BinData(3,"kCHyuyLvgECxPF1nxwr7qQ=="),
... "Created" : ISODate("2012-08-24T07:42:12.416Z"),
... "LastActivity" : ISODate("2013-01-14T19:38:11.776Z"),
... "Price" : 129.9,
... "Sale" : false,
... "Rating" : 11.057340703605368,
... "RatingTimed" : 0.05670431130054035,
... "Available" : null,
... "FreeDelivery" : null,
... "Attrs" : [
... null,
... null,
... null,
... null
... ]
... }
... )
> db.xxx.find({"Attrs":null}).pretty()
{
    "_id" : BinData(3,"ch9PrWveqU6niB6FGVhIOg=="),
    "PeerGroup" : "male",
    "ProductId" : BinData(3,"weRiKOtXEUSDZHkGHLcwzw=="),
    "CategoryIds" : [
        BinData(3,"BXzpwVQozECLaPkJy26t6Q=="),
        BinData(3,"ox303ZeM50KelvoUbPBJ8Q=="),
        BinData(3,"26ziaY+G9UKMyjmtVkkhcg=="),
        BinData(3,"D2X8vObte0eJHNcDfp2HBw==")
    ],
    "ShopId" : BinData(3,"ZdfPmrlKR0GkLPC4djJuKw=="),
    "BrandId" : BinData(3,"kCHyuyLvgECxPF1nxwr7qQ=="),
    "Created" : ISODate("2012-08-24T07:42:12.416Z"),
    "LastActivity" : ISODate("2013-01-14T19:38:11.776Z"),
    "Price" : 129.9,
    "Sale" : false,
    "Rating" : 11.057340703605368,
    "RatingTimed" : 0.05670431130054035,
    "Available" : null,
    "FreeDelivery" : null,
    "Attrs" : [
        null,
        null,
        null,
        null
    ]
}

Please, copy the above sequence to your mongo shell and post the results here.

Answer 2

In order to find documents with arrays, with null elements please run:

db.collection.find({"keyWithArray":{$elemMatch:{"$in":[null], "$exists":true}}})

According to safaribooksonline proper null matching is performed using $in (because you cannot use $eq with null). Also, comparing with null:

{"something":null}

will match documents with "something" field set to null and every document which does not have "something" field at all. Thus we have to make sure the key exists using $exists.

Answer 3

Ok, I figured it out by loading my "null" candidates via my C# driver and it turns out that the values are not null, but Bson Undefined!! They are displayed as "null" in the shell! See http://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-2426. This works:

db.xxx.find({"Attrs":{$type:6}})