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$slice

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$slice

The $slice modifier limits the number of array elements during a $push operation. To project, or return, a specified number of array elements from a read operation, see the $slice projection operator instead.

To use the $slice modifier, it must appear with the $each modifier. You can pass an empty array [] to the $each modifier such that only the $slice modifier has an effect.

{
  $push: {
     <field>: {
       $each: [ <value1>, <value2>, ... ],
       $slice: <num>
     }
  }
}

The <num> can be:

Value Description
Zero To update the array <field> to an empty array.
Negative To update the array <field> to contain only the last <num> elements.
Positive

To update the array <field> contain only the first <num> elements.

New in version 2.6.

Behavior

The order in which the modifiers appear is immaterial. Previous versions required the $each modifier to appear as the first modifier if used in conjunction with $slice. For a list of modifiers available for $push, see Modifiers.

Trying to use the $slice modifier without the $each modifier results in an error.

Examples

Slice from the End of the Array

A collection students contains the following document:

{ "_id" : 1, "scores" : [ 40, 50, 60 ] }

The following operation adds new elements to the scores array, and then uses the $slice modifier to trim the array to the last five elements:

db.students.update(
   { _id: 1 },
   {
     $push: {
       scores: {
         $each: [ 80, 78, 86 ],
         $slice: -5
       }
     }
   }
)

The result of the operation is slice the elements of the updated scores array to the last five elements:

{ "_id" : 1, "scores" : [  50,  60,  80,  78,  86 ] }

Slice from the Front of the Array

A collection students contains the following document:

{ "_id" : 2, "scores" : [ 89, 90 ] }

The following operation adds new elements to the scores array, and then uses the $slice modifier to trim the array to the first three elements.

db.students.update(
   { _id: 2 },
   {
     $push: {
       scores: {
         $each: [ 100, 20 ],
         $slice: 3
       }
     }
   }
)

The result of the operation is to slice the elements of the updated scores array to the first three elements:

{ "_id" : 2, "scores" : [  89,  90,  100 ] }

Update Array Using Slice Only

A collection students contains the following document:

{ "_id" : 3, "scores" : [  89,  70,  100,  20 ] }

To update the scores field with just the effects of the $slice modifier, specify the number of elements to slice (e.g. -3) for the $slice modifier and an empty array [] for the $each modifier, as in the following:

db.students.update(
  { _id: 3 },
  {
    $push: {
      scores: {
         $each: [ ],
         $slice: -3
      }
    }
  }
)

The result of the operation is to slice the elements of the scores array to the last three elements:

{ "_id" : 3, "scores" : [  70,  100,  20 ] }

Use $slice with Other $push Modifiers

A collection students has the following document:

{
   "_id" : 5,
   "quizzes" : [
      { "wk": 1, "score" : 10 },
      { "wk": 2, "score" : 8 },
      { "wk": 3, "score" : 5 },
      { "wk": 4, "score" : 6 }
   ]
}

The following $push operation uses:

  • the $each modifier to add multiple documents to the quizzes array,
  • the $sort modifier to sort all the elements of the modified quizzes array by the score field in descending order, and
  • the $slice modifier to keep only the first three sorted elements of the quizzes array.
db.students.update(
   { _id: 5 },
   {
     $push: {
       quizzes: {
          $each: [ { wk: 5, score: 8 }, { wk: 6, score: 7 }, { wk: 7, score: 6 } ],
          $sort: { score: -1 },
          $slice: 3
       }
     }
   }
)

The result of the operation is keep only the three highest scoring quizzes:

{
  "_id" : 5,
  "quizzes" : [
     { "wk" : 1, "score" : 10 },
     { "wk" : 2, "score" : 8 },
     { "wk" : 5, "score" : 8 }
  ]
}

The order of the modifiers is immaterial to the order in which the modifiers are processed. See Modifiers for details.