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mongodb / v3.6 / reference / reference-operator-aggregation-limit.html

$limit (aggregation)

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Definition

$limit

Limits the number of documents passed to the next stage in the pipeline.

The $limit stage has the following prototype form:

{ $limit: <positive integer> }

$limit takes a positive integer that specifies the maximum number of documents to pass along.

Example

Consider the following example:

db.article.aggregate([
   { $limit : 5 }
]);

This operation returns only the first 5 documents passed to it by the pipeline. $limit has no effect on the content of the documents it passes.

Note

When a $sort immediately precedes a $limit in the pipeline, the $sort operation only maintains the top n results as it progresses, where n is the specified limit, and MongoDB only needs to store n items in memory. This optimization still applies when allowDiskUse is true and the n items exceed the aggregation memory limit.