MongoDB - Sort Records

In this chapter, we will learn how to sort records in MongoDB.

The sort() Method

To sort documents in MongoDB, you need to use sort() method. The method accepts a document containing a list of fields along with their sorting order. To specify sorting order 1 and -1 are used. 1 is used for ascending order while -1 is used for descending order.

Syntax

The basic syntax of sort() method is as follows −

>db.COLLECTION_NAME.find().sort({KEY:1})

Example

Consider the collection myycol has the following data.

{_id : ObjectId("507f191e810c19729de860e1"), title: "MongoDB Overview"}
{_id : ObjectId("507f191e810c19729de860e2"), title: "NoSQL Overview"}
{_id : ObjectId("507f191e810c19729de860e3"), title: "Howcodex Overview"}

Following example will display the documents sorted by title in the descending order.

>db.mycol.find({},{"title":1,_id:0}).sort({"title":-1})
{"title":"Howcodex Overview"}
{"title":"NoSQL Overview"}
{"title":"MongoDB Overview"}
>

Please note, if you don't specify the sorting preference, then sort() method will display the documents in ascending order.