How to use $pull and $pullAll operators in MongoDB

$pull and $pullAll operators are used to remove items from an array of the MongoDB document. If both of them do the same job, then what's the difference?

In this answer, we will learn the clear distinction between these operators and how to use them.

The $pull operator

$pull operator removes items from the array depending on a specific condition.

{ $pull : 
    {
        <array1> : <value | condition1>,
        <array2> : <value | condition2>,
        ...     
    }
}
$pull operator syntax

In the syntax above, array1 and array2 represent the array names from which the items are to be removed depending on the conditions condition1 and condition2.

Example 1: Using $pull operator

To illustrate the use of $pull operator, we will take a simple case.

Let’s create a collection named student_marks and add marks for the student with an id equal to 1. To perform this task, we will use insertOne() method in the following way:

db.student_marks.insertOne( 
    { 
        _id : 1 ,
        marks:[50, 40, 10, 85, 60, 94] 
    }
)
Creating a student_marks collection and adding a document with id equal to 1

Now, let's suppose that the maximum marks attained were 60. Therefore, we need to remove all marks that are greater than 60. For this, we will use the $pull operator in the following manner:

db.student_marks.updateOne(
    {
        _id : 1 
    }, 
    {
        $pull : 
        { 
            marks : { $gt : 60 } 
        } 
    } 
)
$pull operator used to remove marks greater than 60

The code above finds the student_mark document with _id 1 and removes all elements greater than 60. $gt represents the ‘greater than’ comparison query operator. To confirm that the marks greater than 60 have been removed, we will use the following code:

db.student_marks.find({ '_id' : 1 })

Note: Any comparison query operator can be used depending on the situation.

Demo

The aforementioned commands can be tested in the terminal below:

Terminal 1
Terminal
Loading...

The $pullAll operator

$pullAll operator is used to remove items from the array by specifying them.

{ $pullAll : 
    {
        <array1> : [<item1>, <item2>, ...],
        <array2> : [<item1>, <item2>, ...],
        ...     
    }
}
$pullAll operator syntax

In the syntax above, array1 and array2 represent the array names from which we will remove the items item1 and item2.

Example 2: Using $pullAll operator

To illustrate the use of $pullAll operator, we will use a simple case.

Let's create a collection named as class and add students for class with id equal to 1 (_id:1). To perform this task, we will use the following command: 

db.class.insertOne( 
    { 
        _id : 1 ,
        students:['Ali', 'Huzaifa', 'Ahmed', 'Hassan'] 
    }
)
Creating a class collection and adding a document with _id 1

Now, let's suppose that Ali and Huzaifa have left the class. In this case, we want to remove them from class with _id 1. For this, we will use the $pullAll operator in the following manner:

db.class.updateOne(
    {
        _id : 1 
    }, 
    {
        $pullAll : 
        {
            students : ['Ali' , 'Huzaifa']
        }
    } 
)
$pullAll used to remove students named 'Ali' and 'Huzaifa'

The code above works by finding the class document with id equal to 1 (_id:1) and removing Ali and Huzaifa using $pullAll operator. We will confirm that the desired students have been removed using the following code:

db.class.find({ '_id':1 })

Demo

The aforementioned commands can be tested in the terminal below:

Terminal 1
Terminal
Loading...

Conclusion

$pullAll operator is used when we need to remove specific items from the array, whereas, $pull operator is used to remove items that fulfill a certain condition.

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