Insert data into Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB

  • Applies to: ✅ MongoDB

Important

Are you looking to migrate an existing MongoDB application or use MongoDB Query Language (MQL) features? Consider Azure DocumentDB.

Are you looking for a database solution for high-scale scenarios with a 99.999% availability service level agreement (SLA), instant autoscale, and automatic failover across multiple regions? Consider Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL.

One of the most basic operations is inserting data into a collection. This article covers how to insert data by using the Mongo Shell (Mongosh).

Insert a single document

The most basic way to insert data into MongoDB is to insert a single document. To insert data in this way, you can use the db.collection.insertOne() method. The insertOne() method takes a single document as its argument and inserts it into the specified collection. Here's an example of how you might use this method:

db.myCollection.insertOne({
  name: "John Smith",
  age: 30,
  address: "123 Main St"
});

This example inserts a document into the myCollection collection. It has the following fields: name, age, and address. After you run the command, you see acknowledged: true and insertedId: ObjectId("5f5d5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f") in the output, where the insertedId is the unique identifier generated by MongoDB for the inserted document.

Insert multiple documents

In many cases, you need to insert multiple documents at once. To insert multiple documents, you can use the db.collection.insertMany() method. The insertMany() method takes an array of documents as its argument and inserts them into the specified collection. Here's an example:

db.myCollection.insertMany([
  {name: "Jane Doe", age: 25, address: "456 Park Ave"},
  {name: "Bob Smith", age: 35, address: "789 Elm St"},
  {name: "Sally Johnson", age: 40, address: "111 Oak St"}
]);

This example inserts three documents into the myCollection collection. Each document has the same fields as the previous example: name, age, and address. The insertMany() method returns acknowledged: true and insertedIds: [ObjectId("5f5d5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f"), ObjectId("5f5d5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f"), ObjectId("5f5d5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f5f")] where insertedIds is an array of unique identifiers generated by MongoDB for each inserted document.

Insert with options

Both insertOne() and insertMany() accept an optional second argument, which you can use to specify options for the insert operation. For example, to set the ordered option to false, use the following code:

db.myCollection.insertMany([
  {name: "Jane Doe", age: 25, address: "456 Park Ave"},
  {name: "Bob Smith", age: 35, address: "789 Elm St"},
  {name: "Sally Johnson", age: 40, address: "111 Oak St"}
], {ordered: false});

This option tells MongoDB to insert the documents in an unordered fashion. If one document fails to insert, MongoDB continues with the next one. This option improves write performance in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB.

Next steps

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