Node.js Basics — Skipping and Limiting MongoDB Results

Node.js is a popular runtime platform to create programs that run on it.

It lets us run JavaScript outside the browser.

In this article, we’ll look at how to start using Node.js to create programs.

Limit the Number of Returned Results

We can limit the number of returned results by calling the limit method.

For example, we can write:

const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb');
const connection = "mongodb://localhost:27017";
const client = new MongoClient(connection);

async function run() {
  try {
    await client.connect();
    const testCollection = await client.db("test").collection('test');
    await testCollection.deleteMany({})
    const result = await testCollection.insertMany([
      { "_id": 1, "name": "apples", "qty": 5, "rating": 3 },
      { "_id": 2, "name": "bananas", "qty": 7, "rating": 1 },
      { "_id": 3, "name": "oranges", "qty": 6, "rating": 2 },
      { "_id": 4, "name": "avocados", "qty": 3, "rating": 5 },
    ]);
    console.log(result)
    const query = {};
    const sort = { length: -1 };
    const limit = 3;
    const cursor = testCollection.find(query).sort(sort).limit(limit);
    await cursor.forEach(console.dir);
  } finally {
    await client.close();
  }
}
run().catch(console.dir);

We call the limit method with the limit to set the max number of results to 3.

Also, we can set the properties in the query object.

For example, we can write:

const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb');
const connection = "mongodb://localhost:27017";
const client = new MongoClient(connection);

async function run() {
  try {
    await client.connect();
    const testCollection = await client.db("test").collection('test');
    await testCollection.deleteMany({})
    const result = await testCollection.insertMany([
      { "_id": 1, "name": "apples", "qty": 5, "rating": 3 },
      { "_id": 2, "name": "bananas", "qty": 7, "rating": 1 },
      { "_id": 3, "name": "oranges", "qty": 6, "rating": 2 },
      { "_id": 4, "name": "avocados", "qty": 3, "rating": 5 },
    ]);
    console.log(result)
    const query = {};
    const options = {
      sort: { rating: -1 }, limit: 3
    }
    const cursor = testCollection.find(query, options);
    await cursor.forEach(console.dir);
  } finally {
    await client.close();
  }
}
run().catch(console.dir);

We put the limit property in the options object instead of calling limit to limit the number of results.

We can call the skip method to skip the first number of results.

For example, we can write:

const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb');
const connection = "mongodb://localhost:27017";
const client = new MongoClient(connection);

async function run() {
  try {
    await client.connect();
    const testCollection = await client.db("test").collection('test');
    await testCollection.deleteMany({})
    const result = await testCollection.insertMany([
      { "_id": 1, "name": "apples", "qty": 5, "rating": 3 },
      { "_id": 2, "name": "bananas", "qty": 7, "rating": 1 },
      { "_id": 3, "name": "oranges", "qty": 6, "rating": 2 },
      { "_id": 4, "name": "avocados", "qty": 3, "rating": 5 },
    ]);
    console.log(result)
    const query = {};
    const sort = { length: 1 };
    const limit = 3;
    const skip = 3;
    const cursor = testCollection.find(query).sort(sort).limit(limit).skip(skip);
    await cursor.forEach(console.dir);
  } finally {
    await client.close();
  }
}
run().catch(console.dir);

We use the skip method with the limit method to add pagination for the results.

We skip the amount of results to reach the given page.

And limit sets the max number of results per page.

Conclusion

We can limit the number of results and skip some results with the MongoDB Node.js client.