searching an array of values with mongoDB

Question

I have a collection which contains only 1 document:

events: ['some event', 'another one', 'and another'];

how can I perform a search against this so if the search parameter was "som", the docs returned would be "some event".

Currently I have the following:

var collection = db.collection('suggestions');
collection.ensureIndex({events: "text"}, function(){});

collection.find({ $text: { $search: term } }).toArray(function(err, docs){
    if(err){
        console.log(err);
    }else{
        res.send(docs);
    }
});

where term is the search term - but this always returns an empty array [].

Can this be done with mongoDB?

$text is a full-text search. It searches over the tokens in your input text (with word stemming, so that {$text: {$search: 'events'}} would actually find something, even if the word your document actually contains is 'event'). It depends on the value of term and the value of default_language of the index (or $language parameter of the search) what the result will look like. Maybe you didn't actually want to use a $text search? — Tomalak
– Tomalak, Commented Jan 31, 2015 at 13:10

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-31 13:16:40Z

1

I think that searching a part of the word would require using regex queries, since text indexes, however very useful, as far as I know may only serve to find whole words.

You might find a part of the word using the following query :

var collection = db.collection('suggestions');
collection.ensureIndex({events: 1}, function(){});

var query = { events: new RegExp( term ) };

collection.find(query).toArray(function(err, docs){
    if(err){
        console.log(err);
    }else{
        res.send(docs);
    }
});

In the above there is also multi-key index created on events array (as an option for consideration).

I hope it helps at least slightly.

edited Jan 31, 2015 at 13:16

answered Jan 31, 2015 at 11:49

user2941651

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2 Comments

Tomalak Over a year ago

'/' + term + '/' does not construct a regex.

Tomalak Over a year ago

new RegExp(term) is not safe, because term can contain special characters. The term must be quoted, see this answer. stackoverflow.com/a/2593661/18771

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