Mongodb $lookup Not working with _id

Question

wend try with this query, return the lookup is empty

db.getCollection('tests').aggregate([
    {$match: {typet:'Req'}},
    {$project: {incharge:1}},
    {$lookup:{
            from: "users",
            localField: "incharge", //this is the _id user from tests
            foreignField: "_id", //this is the _id from users
            as: "user"
    }}
])

return json

  [
    {
        "_id": "57565d2e45bd27b012fc4db9",
        "incharge": "549e0bb67371ecc804ad23ef",
        "user": []
    },
    {
        "_id": "57565d2045bd27b012fc4cbb",
        "incharge": "549e0bb67371ecc804ad21ef",
        "user": []
    },
    {
        "_id": "57565d2245bd27b012fc4cc7",
        "incharge": "549e0bb67371ecc804ad24ef",
        "user": []
    }
]

i try with this post but nothing happend MongoDB aggregation project string to ObjectId and with this MongoDB $lookup with _id as a foreignField in PHP

UPDATE

this is the Document "users"

    {
        "_id" : ObjectId("549e0bb67371ecc804ad24ef"),
        "displayname" : "Jhon S."
    },
    {
        "_id" : ObjectId("549e0bb67371ecc804ad21ef"),
        "displayname" : "George F."
    },
    {
        "_id" : ObjectId("549e0bb67371ecc804ad23ef"),
        "displayname" : "Franc D."
    }

Answer 1

I finaly found the solution, is a problem with my Schema in mongoose with the ObjectId

I change this

var Schema = new Schema({
    name: { type: String, required: true},
    incharge: { type: String, required: true},
});

with this

var Schema = new Schema({
    name: { type: String, required: true},
    incharge: { type: mongoose.Schema.ObjectId, required: true},
});

and is working

Answer 2

First, assert that the type of the incharge field is mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId. If you still get an empty array back it might be because you are using the schema name you declared in NodeJS instead of the collection name used by MongoDB.

Example from a UserSchema file:

const mongoose = require('mongoose')
const Schema = mongoose.Schema

const UserSchema = new Schema({
  name: { 
    type: String, 
    required: true
  },
  incharge: { 
    type: Schema.Types.ObjectId, 
    required: true
  },
})

const User = mongoose.model('User', UserSchema)
module.exports = User

The model above is named User by mongoose but the corresponding collection in mongoDB is named users. The resulting $lookup is written as:

$lookup:{
  from: "users",           // name of mongoDB collection, NOT mongoose model
  localField: "incharge",  // referenced users _id in the tests collection
  foreignField: "_id",     // _id from users
  as: "user"               // output array in returned object
}

https://mongoosejs.com/docs/models.html
https://mongoosejs.com/docs/schematypes.html

Answer 3

Your lookup Query is correct. But it is trying to compare a string type (incharge) with ObjectId (_id). Convert the string to ObjectId as shown below. It works for me.

db.getCollection('tests').aggregate([
{$match: {typet:'Req'}},
{$project: {
   incharge:{
     $toObjectId:"$incharge"
   }
},
{$lookup:{
        from: "users",
        localField: "incharge", //this is the _id user from tests
        foreignField: "_id", //this is the _id from users
        as: "user"
}}

Answer 4

You just have to use "_id.str" and work will be done.

db.getCollection('tests').aggregate([
{$match: {typet:'Req'}},
{$project: {incharge:1}},
{$lookup:{
        from: "users",
        localField: "incharge", //this is the _id user from tests
        foreignField: "_id.str", //this is the _id from users
        as: "user"
}}

])

Works fine for me.

Answer 5

Comparing a string with an ObjectId doesn't throw an error, rather sends an empty array in the aggregated output document. So you need to make sure that you have converted the string object id to mongodb's ObjectId:

db.getCollection('tests').aggregate([
    {$match: {typet:'Req'}},
    {$set: {incharge: {$toObjectId: "$incharge"} }}, // keep the whole document structure, but replace `incharge` into ObjectId
    {$lookup:{
            from: "users",
            localField: "incharge", //this is the _id user from tests
            foreignField: "_id", //this is the _id from users
            as: "user"
    }}
])

Answer 6

Your lookup query is perfect, but the problem is you are storing incharge as string into the db, whereas the _id : ObjectId('theID') is an Object and not just string and you cannot compare a string (' ') with an object ({ }). So, the best way is to store the incharge key as an object(mongoose.Schema.ObjectId) and not as string in the schema.

Answer 7

try changing type of incharge which is string to ObjectId in aggregate function like this

{ 
    $project : {
        incharge : {
            $toObjectId : "$incharge"
        }
    }
}