It's important to note that the example provided is not an array in MongoDB, but rather a sub-document for "fruits" with different keys. An actual array in MongoDB would be structured like this:
{ "fruits": [{ "apples":2 } , { "orange":3 }], "carrot": 5 }
In addition, the term "fruits" is subjective as it requires specifying a list of items considered fruits. Another aspect to consider is that MongoDB currently does not have a direct way to reference the existing value of a field when updating.
This means you'll need to use .find()
to retrieve the data from each document in order to restructure it. Essentially, this involves looping through results and performing an .update()
operation on each document.
The Bulk API introduced in MongoDB 2.6 can assist with batch writing operations to the database instead of one at a time:
// Code snippet mentioned here
This code snippet utilizes the $each
modifier for $push
to add multiple array entries simultaneously. The $unset
operator can safely be used for fields that don't exist in the document without needing to check their presence beforehand.
If you specifically require a document structure similar to the given example (which is not an array), you can construct it using the $set
operator:
// Code snippet for constructing non-array document
Regardless of the approach, looping through the existing collection is necessary. There isn't a direct operation in MongoDB to extract an existing value in a document and use it to set a new value from the server-side perspective.