8.1. Inserting documents into MongoDB: Introduction to MongoDB

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MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database that offers high performance, high availability and easy scalability. It works on the concept of collections and documents, rather than tables and rows as in relational databases, which makes it a popular choice for many modern organizations.

In our e-book course, we will start with the introduction to MongoDB and then move on to inserting documents into MongoDB, which is one of the fundamental aspects of understanding and working with this database.

Introduction to MongoDB

MongoDB is an open source database, written in C++, that serves a wide range of applications. The term 'Mongo' is derived from the word world in many Bantu languages, and is an expression of MongoDB's goal to be a database solution for the entire world.

MongoDB databases store data in flexible documents, similar to JSON, which means that fields can vary from document to document and the data structure can change over time. The data model is easy to read and intuitive for developers.

Additionally, MongoDB is a distributed database in nature, which means it can easily scale horizontally to meet the demands of large data volumes and high-performance traffic.

Inserting Documents into MongoDB

Once you have a solid understanding of what MongoDB is, the next step is to learn how to insert documents into it. A document is basically a record of data in a MongoDB database. Each document is a data structure composed of field and value pairs.

To insert a document into a MongoDB collection, we use the 'insert' method. This method creates a new collection if it does not exist and inserts a new document into that collection.

Here is an example of how you can insert a document into a collection:

db.collection.insert({
   name: "John Doe",
   age: 30,
   profession: "Software Engineer"
})

In this example, we are inserting a document into the 'collection' collection with the fields 'name', 'age' and 'profession'. If the collection 'collection' does not exist, MongoDB will create it for us.

We can also insert multiple documents at once using the 'insertMany' method. Here is an example:

db.collection.insertMany([
   {
      name: "John Doe",
      age: 30,
      profession: "Software Engineer"
   },
   {
      name: "Jane Doe",
      age: 28,
      profession: "UX Designer"
   }
])

In this example, we are inserting two documents into the 'collection' collection. MongoDB will return an object that contains the status of the operation and the '_id' of the inserted documents.

It is important to note that each document in a MongoDB collection must have a unique '_id' field that acts as the primary key. If you don't provide the '_id' field, MongoDB will create it for you.

Understanding document insertion is crucial to working with MongoDB, as it is the basis for creating and maintaining your databases. In the next chapters of our e-book course, we will explore in more detail how to query, update, and delete documents in MongoDB.

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108.2. Inserting documents into MongoDB: Installing MongoDB