PHP/MongoDB: pushing an array value into array field with the $pushAll modifier

Question

Lets say I have this document that i'd like to update:

array(
    '_id' => 123,
    'entries' => array(
        '4d8aae834f42e06b638d0000' => array(
            'user_id' => 2,
            'ts' => 'Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700'
        )
    )
)

I've got an array that i'd like to append into the entries field:

$entries = array(
    '4d8aae834f42e06b638d0000' => array('user_id' => 3, 'ts' => 'Wed, 21 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700')
    '4d8aae834f42e06b638d3219' => array('user_id' => 4, 'ts' => 'Wed, 22 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700')
);

The attempted query:

$updateData = array(
    '$pushAll' => array(
        'entries' => $entries
    )
);

$db->update('journal', array('_id' => 123), $updateData, array('upsert' => true));

The above query wouldn't append the new data. Changing the modifier from $pushAll to $set obviously won't work since it'll just replace what's already in there. I've tried $addToSet and it also didn't work. I'm all out of option now.

This is how i would like the document to end up with:

array(
    '_id' => 123,
    'entries' => array(
        '4d8aae834f42e06b638d0000' => array(
            'user_id' => 2,
            'ts' => 'Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700'
        ),
        '4d8aae834f42e06b638d0000' => array(
            'user_id' => 3, 
            'ts' => 'Wed, 21 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700'
        ),
        '4d8aae834f42e06b638d3219' => array(
            'user_id' => 4, 
            'ts' => 'Wed, 20 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700'
        )
    )
)

Thanks in advance.

The mongo operators like $addToSet and $pushAll will only work with numerically indexed arrays. — Anthony Jack
– Anthony Jack, Commented Mar 24, 2011 at 13:38

ryan · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-24 03:43:47Z

4

After more testing; ive managed to find a working solution if anyone is interested.

Setting the keys in your new data with the prefix 'entries' (or whatever field name you're updating) with the modifier to '$set' will do the trick.

$entries = array(
    'entries.4d8aae834f42e06b638d0000' => array('user_id' => 3, 'ts' => 'Wed, 21 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700')
    'entries.4d8aae834f42e06b638d3219' => array('user_id' => 4, 'ts' => 'Wed, 22 Mar 2011 19: 37: 55 -0700')
);

And for the update:

$updateData = array(
    '$set' => $entries
);

$db->update('journal', array('_id' => 123), $updateData, array('upsert' => true));

answered Mar 24, 2011 at 3:43

ryan

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Comments

bm_i · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-31 08:26:47Z

1

Just thought I'd give you some info on your working solution. In my experience the reason that you cannot "$push" or "$addToSet" is because your target "entries" is probably an embedded object. You can only use $push, $pushAll, $addToSet on embedded arrays, that is why you had to use the dot notation in order to update as you wanted...

Unfortunately for us php developers a cursor query always returns the data as arrays, the best way to check to see if something like "entries" is an array or object, is to run a find() in the mongo shell and look for the curly/square brackets ( "{}" or "[]" ) in the result.

answered Aug 31, 2011 at 8:26

bm_i

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