MongoDB $ne

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the MongoDB $ne operator to query documents from a collection.

Introduction to MongoDB $ne operator

The $ne is a comparison query operator that allows you to select documents where the value of a filed is not equal to a specified value. It also includes documents that don’t contain the field.

The $ne is called the inequality operator. Here is the syntax of the $ne operator:

{ field: {$ne: value}}
Code language: CSS (css)

MongoDB $ne operator examples

We’ll use the following products collection:

db.products.insertMany([
    { "_id" : 1, "name" : "xPhone", "price" : 799, "releaseDate": ISODate("2011-05-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 4, "screen" : 6.5, "cpu" : 2.66 },"color":["white","black"],"storage":[64,128,256]},
    { "_id" : 2, "name" : "xTablet", "price" : 899, "releaseDate": ISODate("2011-09-01") , "spec" : { "ram" : 16, "screen" : 9.5, "cpu" : 3.66 },"color":["white","black","purple"],"storage":[128,256,512]},
    { "_id" : 3, "name" : "SmartTablet", "price" : 899, "releaseDate": ISODate("2015-01-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 12, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 3.66 },"color":["blue"],"storage":[16,64,128]},
    { "_id" : 4, "name" : "SmartPad", "price" : 699, "releaseDate": ISODate("2020-05-14"),"spec" : { "ram" : 8, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 1.66 },"color":["white","orange","gold","gray"],"storage":[128,256,1024]},
    { "_id" : 5, "name" : "SmartPhone", "price" : 599,"releaseDate": ISODate("2022-09-14"), "spec" : { "ram" : 4, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 1.66 },"color":["white","orange","gold","gray"],"storage":[128,256]}
,
    { "_id" : 6, "name" : "xWidget", "spec" : { "ram" : 64, "screen" : 9.7, "cpu" : 3.66 },"color":["black"],"storage":[1024]}
 ])
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

1) Using the $ne operator to select documents where the value of a field is greater than a specified value

The following example uses the $ne operator to select documents from the products collection where the price is not equal to 899:

db.products.find({
    price: {
        $ne: 899
    }
}, {
    name: 1,
    price: 1
})
Code language: CSS (css)

It matches the following documents:

{ "_id" : 1, "name" : "xPhone", "price" : 799 }
{ "_id" : 4, "name" : "SmartPad", "price" : 699 }
{ "_id" : 5, "name" : "SmartPhone", "price" : 599 }
{ "_id" : 6, "name" : "xWidget" }
Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)

2) Using the $ne operator to check if a field in an embedded document is not equal to a value

The following example uses $ne operator to select documents where the value of the screen field in the spec document is not equal to 9.7:

db.products.find({
    "spec.screen": {
        $ne: 9.7
    }
}, {
    name: 1,
    "spec.screen": 1
})
Code language: PHP (php)

Output:

{ "_id" : 1, "name" : "xPhone", "spec" : { "screen" : 6.5 } }
{ "_id" : 2, "name" : "xTablet", "spec" : { "screen" : 9.5 } }
Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)

3) Using the $ne operator to check if an array element is not equal to a value

The following example uses the $ne operator to query the products collection to find documents where the array storage does not have any element that equals 128:

db.products.find({
    storage: {
        $ne: 128
    }
}, {
    name: 1,
    storage: 1
});
Code language: CSS (css)

It matched the following documents:

{ "_id" : 6, "name" : "xWidget", "storage" : [ 1024 ] }
Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)

4) Using the $ne operator to check if the value of a field is not equal to a date

The following query uses the $ne operator to find documents from the products collection where the release date is not 2015-01-14:

db.products.find({
    releaseDate: {
        $ne: new ISODate('2015-01-14')
    }
}, {
    name: 1,
    releaseDate: 1
});
Code language: CSS (css)

It returns the documents whose release dates are not 2015-01-14 and also the document that does not include the field releaseDate :

{ "_id" : 1, "name" : "xPhone", "releaseDate" : ISODate("2011-05-14T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 2, "name" : "xTablet", "releaseDate" : ISODate("2011-09-01T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 4, "name" : "SmartPad", "releaseDate" : ISODate("2020-05-14T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 5, "name" : "SmartPhone", "releaseDate" : ISODate("2022-09-14T00:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 6, "name" : "xWidget" }
Code language: JSON / JSON with Comments (json)

Summary

• Use the $ne operator to check if the value of a field is not equal to a specified value.