$lookup

The $lookup stage in the Aggregation Framework is used to perform left outer joins with other collections. It allows you to combine documents from different collections based on a specified condition. This operator is useful for enriching documents with related data from other collections without having to perform multiple queries.

Syntax

The syntax for the $lookup stage is as follows:

{
  $lookup: {
    from: <collection to join>,
    localField: <field from input documents>,
    foreignField: <field from the documents of the "from" collection>,
    as: <output array field>
  }
}

Parameters

Parameter Description
from The name of the collection to join with.
localField The field from the input documents that are matched with the foreignField.
foreignField The field from the documents in the from collection that are matched with the localField.
as The name of the new array field to add to the input documents. This array contains the matched documents from the from collection.

Examples

Let's say we have a ratings collection with two documents.

{
  "_id": "7954bd5c-9ac2-4c10-bb7a-2b79bd0963c5",
  "rating": 5
}
{
  "_id": "fecca713-35b6-44fb-898d-85232c62db2f",
  "rating": 3
}

Consider this sample document from the stores collection.

{
  "_id": "7954bd5c-9ac2-4c10-bb7a-2b79bd0963c5",
   "name": "Lakeshore Retail | DJ Equipment Stop - Port Cecile",
  "location": {
    "lat": 60.1441,
    "lon": -141.5012
  },
  "staff": {
    "totalStaff": {
      "fullTime": 2,
      "partTime": 0
    }
  },
  "sales": {
    "salesByCategory": [
      {
        "categoryName": "DJ Headphones",
        "totalSales": 35921
      }
    ],
    "fullSales": 3700
  },
  "promotionEvents": [
    {
      "eventName": "Bargain Blitz Days",
      "promotionalDates": {
        "startDate": {
          "Year": 2024,
          "Month": 3,
          "Day": 11
        },
        "endDate": {
          "Year": 2024,
          "Month": 2,
          "Day": 18
        }
      },
      "discounts": [
        {
          "categoryName": "DJ Turntables",
          "discountPercentage": 18
        },
        {
          "categoryName": "DJ Mixers",
          "discountPercentage": 15
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tag": [
    "#ShopLocal",
    "#SeasonalSale",
    "#FreeShipping",
    "#MembershipDeals"
  ]
}

Example 1: Combine two collections to list promotion events for stores with a rating of 5

We want to join the ratings collection with the stores collection to list promotion events related to each store having a 5 rating.

db.ratings.aggregate([
  // filter based on rating in ratings collection
  {
    $match: {
      "rating": 5
    }
  },
  // find related documents in stores collection
  {
    $lookup: {
      from: "stores",
      localField: "_id",
      foreignField: "_id",
      as: "storeEvents"
    }
  },
  // deconstruct array to output a document for each element of the array
  {
    $unwind: "$storeEvents"
  },
   // Include only _id and name fields in the output 
  { $project: { _id: 1, "storeEvents.name": 1 } }  

])

This query would return the following document.

[
  {
    "_id": "7954bd5c-9ac2-4c10-bb7a-2b79bd0963c5",
    "storeEvents": { "name": "Lakeshore Retail | DJ Equipment Stop - Port Cecile" }
  }
]

Example 2: Joining two collections (ratings and stores) using a variable from ratings.

db.ratings.aggregate([
  {
    $match: { rating: 5 }
  },
  {
    $lookup: {
      from: "stores",
      let: { id: "$_id" },
      pipeline: [
        {
          $match: {
            $expr: { $eq: ["$_id", "$$id"] }
          }
        },
        {
          $project: { _id: 0, name: 1 }
        }
      ],
      as: "storeInfo"
    }
  },
  {
    $unwind: "$storeInfo"
  },
  {
    $project: {
      _id: 1,
      rating: 1,
      "storeInfo.name": 1
    }
  }
])

This query would return the following document.

[
  {
    _id: '7954bd5c-9ac2-4c10-bb7a-2b79bd0963c5',
    rating: 5,
    storeInfo: { name: 'Lakeshore Retail | DJ Equipment Stop - Port Cecile' }
  }
]

Related content