Variable naming in the interactive shell, mongodb

Question

I have a web app, that accepts parameters that then go on to create a collection in mongodb. I'm currently doing some testing and using the interactive shell to find if the read and writes are correct. If I use a some character everything works correctly. When I use something with a - or numbers, I get an error. eg:

> db.getCollectionNames();
[ "1", "2", "deviceslist", "system.indexes" ]
> db.1.find()
Sun Oct  9 22:58:22 SyntaxError: missing ; before statement (shell):1
>

Is there something I am missing or does mongodb just dont accept these things??

I've tried combinations of

db.'1'.find() db."1".find()

and none seem to work.

Help please..

aurora · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-09 12:10:14Z

4

You should be able to access the collection in the following way:

db[1].find();

or

db['1'].find();

but i don't know, if there are any negative side-effects when naming a collection like so.

answered Oct 9, 2011 at 12:10

aurora

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3 Comments

rissicay Over a year ago

> db.[1].find(); Sun Oct 9 23:25:40 SyntaxError: missing name after . operator (shell):1 > db.['1'].find(); Sun Oct 9 23:25:46 SyntaxError: missing name after . operator (shell):1 > db.["1"].find(); Sun Oct 9 23:25:55 SyntaxError: missing name after . operator (shell):1 >

rissicay Over a year ago

still syntax error. The other option is to make it so the user can only name it a certain way, which is hard..

aurora Over a year ago

you have a dot in your notation. it is db[1] not db.[1]

Tad Marshall · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-16 02:20:54Z

0

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with giving a collection a numeric name except that JavaScript parsing will require you to use the bracket notation as harald's answer suggested.

db.one.find() // no issues

db['1'].find() // can't type db.1.find(), JavaScript parsing won't accept it

answered Feb 16, 2012 at 2:20

Tad Marshall

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