MongoDB – $push Operator

MongoDB provides different types of array update operators to update the values of the array fields in the documents and $push operator is one of them. This operator is used to append a specified value to an array.

Syntax:

{ $push: { <field1>: <value1>, ... } }

Here, <field> can specify with dot notation in embedded/nested documents or an array.

• If the specified field in the $push operator is not present in the document, then this operator will add the array field with the value as its items.
• The $push operator insert items at the end of the array.
• If the specified field in the $push operator is not an array, then this operation will fails.
• If the value of the $push operator is an array, then this operator will append the whole array as a single element. And if you want to add each item of the value separately, then you can use $each modifier with $push operator.
• You can use this operator with methods like update(), findAndModify(), etc., according to your requirement.

We can also use the following modifiers with the $push operator :
Syntax:

{ $push: { <field1>: { <modifier1>: <value1>, ... }, ... } }

The processing of the push operation with modifiers works in the following order:

• First update the array to add items in the correct position.
• Second, apply sort if specified.
• Third slice the array if specified.
• Fourth store the array.

Note: Here the order in which the modifiers appear in the $push operator does not matter.

Modifier	Description
$each	It is used to append multiple values to the array field.
$slice	It is used to limit the number of array items and require the use of the $each modifier.
$sort	It is used to order items of the array and require the use of the $each modifier.
$position	It is used to specify the location in the array at which to insert the new items and require the use of the $each modifier. If the $push operator does not use $position modifier, then this operator will append the items to the end of the array.

In the following examples, we are working with:

Database: GeeksforGeeks
Collection: contributor
Document: two documents that contain the details of the contributor in the form of field-value pairs.

Appending a single value to an array:

In this example, we are appending a single value, i.e., “C++” to an array field, i.e., language field in the document that satisfy the condition(name: “Rohit”).

db.contributor.update({name: "Rohit"}, {$push: {language: "C++"}})

Appending multiple values to an array:

In this example, we are appending multiple values, i.e., [“C”, “Ruby”, “Go”] to an array field, i.e., language field in the document that satisfy the condition(name: “Sumit”).

db.contributor.update({name: "Sumit"}, {$push: {language: {$each: ["C", "Ruby", "Go"]}}})

Appending multiple values to an array in the nested/embedded document:

In this example, we are appending multiple values, i.e., [89, 76.4] to an array field, i.e., personal.semesterMarks field of a nested/embedded document.

db.contributor.update({name: "Sumit"},
                      {$push: {"personal.semesterMarks": {$each: [89, 76.4]}}})

Use of modifiers with $push operator:

In this example, we are using multiple modifiers like $each, $sort, and $slice with $push operator.

db.contributor.update({name: "Rohit"},
                      {$push: { language: { $each: ["C", "Go"],
                                $sort: 1, $slice: 4}}})

Here,

• The $each modifier is used to add multiple documents to the language array.
• The $sort modifier is used to sort all the items of the modified language array in ascending.
• The $slice modifier is used to keep only the first four sorted items of the language array.