MongoDB Regex Like Query pattern – II

Today in this article, we shall see how to write MongoDB Regex Like query ( resembles SQL ‘like’ query) using regex pattern with case sensitive and insensitive search with examples.

Today in this article, we will cover below aspects,

I shall be explaining the queries using the like query in MongoDB Shell. If you are interested to refer a mongo query without Regex, please refer to the article below,

• MongoDB ‘Like’ Query pattern -Part 1

I have a sample MongoDB document below in one of the collections. Here we shall be trying to search all the documents using a MongoDB-like query

[
  {
    "_id": "5db5a4476997188b2722c820",
    "Name": "Design Patterns",
    "Price": 54.93,
    "Category": "Computers",
    "Author": "Ralph Johnson"
  },
  {
    "_id": "5ff50353a29ce9564c2724e2",
    "Name": "Design Patterns",
    "Price": 54.93,
    "Category": "Computers",
    "Author": "Mike Casper"
  },
  {
    "_id": "5ff503cda29ce9564c2724e3",
    "Name": "Design Patterns",
    "Price": 54.93,
    "Category": "Computers",
    "Author": "TheCodeBuzz"
  }
 {
    "_id": "45b5a4476543188b2722c34550",
    "Name": "Design Patterns- II",
    "Price": 60.93,
    "Category": "Computers",
    "Author": "Ralph johnson"
  },
]

Scenarios 1 – MongoDB Regex Query with Like

Let’s build MongoDB-like query using a regex for getting Author names where the name contains a word like “J” or “j” for the Author field.

Assumptions:

“J” or “j” could be contained at the start or last or in the middle or anywhere else of Author names.

Query pattern

MongoDB regex query with case-sensitive search

{ Field Name: {'$regex' : 'string'}}

MongoDB regex query with case insensitive search

{ Field Name: {'$regex' : 'string', '$options' : 'i'}}

Example Query 1

db.Books.find({Author:{'$regex' : 'J'}})

Mongo Query Result :

   db.Books.find({Author:{'$regex' : 'J'}})
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5db5a4476997188b2722c820"), "Name" : "Design Patterns", "Price" : 54.93, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Ralph Johnson" }
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5ff503cda29ce9564c2724e3"), "Name" : "Code Refactoring", "Price" : 43.15, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Julia Robert" } 

db.Books.find({Author:{'$regex' : 'j'}})
 { "_id" : ObjectId("5f34a2430c3ca98a8c9052d2"), "Name" : "Design Patterns", "Price" : 54.93, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Ralph johnson" }

Example Query 2 – Case insensitive

Let’s now use case insensitive query using $options,

{ Author:{'$regex' : 'J', '$options' : 'i'}

Mongo Query Result :

Below is the query for like in MongoDB

  > db.Books.find({Author:{'$regex' : 'J', '$options' : 'i'}})
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5db5a4476997188b2722c820"), "Name" : "Design Patterns", "Price" : 54.93, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Ralph Johnson" }
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5f34a2430c3ca98a8c9052d2"), "Name" : "Design Patterns", "Price" : 54.93, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Ralph johnson" }
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5ff503cda29ce9564c2724e3"), "Name" : "Code Refactoring", "Price" : 43.15, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Julia Robert" } 

Scenarios 2 – MongoDB Regex Query with ‘Like’ that start with criteria

Let’s build a query to get the list of items that start with some search criteria. Example “Ro” for Author field.

Query pattern

{ Field Name : /^Ro/ }


Where Ro is your search cretieria.

Example Query

{ Author :{'$regex' : '^Ro', '$options' : 'i'}})

Search Result:

Scenarios 3 – Regex End with match Mongo Query

Let’s build a query to Get the list of items that ends with some search criteria. Example “rt” for Author field

Query pattern

{ Field Name : { ‘$regex’ : ‘robert$’ , ‘$options’ : ‘i’ } }

Where ‘robert’ is your search criteria

Example Query

{ Author :{'$regex' : 'robert$', '$options' : 'i'}}

Mongo Shell results,

   > db.Books.find({ Author :{'$regex' : 'robert$', '$options' : 'i'}})
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5ff503cda29ce9564c2724e3"), "Name" : "Code Refactoring", "Price" : 43.15, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Julia Robert" } 

Above query, we have Author “Julia Robert” that matches with search criteria.

Scenarios 4 – Regex Exact Match Mongo Query

Let’s look into Regex Exact Match Mongo Query.

Query pattern

{ Field Name : { ‘$regex’ : ‘robert$’ , ‘$options’ : ‘i’ } }

Where ‘robert’ is your search criteria

Example Query:

{ Author :{'$regex' : '^julia robert$', '$options' : 'i'}}

Where ‘julia robert’ is our exact search criteria. Here Author field value has to match exactly (but case insensitive )

Mongo Shell results,

   > db.Books.find({ Author :{'$regex' : 'robert$', '$options' : 'i'}})
   { "_id" : ObjectId("5ff503cda29ce9564c2724e3"), "Name" : "Code Refactoring", "Price" : 43.15, "Category" : "Computers", "Author" : "Julia Robert" } 

Above query, we have Author “Julia Robert” that matches with exact search criteria.

References:

• MongoDB Query with ‘Like’ without Regex– Guidelines

Do you have any comments or ideas or any better suggestions to share?

Please sound off your comments below.

Happy Coding !!

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