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MongoDB Academy · Aula

Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções

Você comporá uma cadeia completa de consulta com filtro, projeção, ordenação e paginação para alimentar um endpoint de lista realista.

Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções é uma aula grátis de MongoDB Academy no CoddyKit. Esta é a aula 4 de 4. Você pode ler a aula completa abaixo gratuitamente — depois pratica ao vivo no navegador com um editor de código integrado e um tutor de IA 24/7. Faz parte do caminho de aprendizado de MongoDB Academy, e seu progresso é sincronizado entre a web e o app CoddyKit. O curso de MongoDB Academy inclui 4 aulas no total.

Partes desta aula ainda não foram traduzidas e aparecem em inglês.

The Complete Query Chain

A production-quality MongoDB list query combines four components: a filter to select matching documents, a projection to select which fields to return, a sort to order the results, and pagination (skip/limit or keyset) to return one page at a time. Understanding how these compose and in what order MongoDB executes them is essential for writing correct and performant queries.

MongoDB's Internal Execution Order

Regardless of the order you chain methods in the driver, MongoDB always executes query components in this fixed sequence: 1) Filter → 2) Sort → 3) Skip → 4) Limit. Projection is applied as documents are read from the storage engine. This order matters: skip operates on the sorted result set, and limit caps the final output after skipping. You cannot change this execution order.

// These two are identical — order of chaining doesn't matter
db.products.find({}).sort({ price: -1 }).skip(20).limit(10);
db.products.find({}).limit(10).skip(20).sort({ price: -1 });
// MongoDB executes: filter -> sort -> skip -> limit

Building a List API Endpoint

Put it all together in a realistic list endpoint. The example below fetches page 2 of active products in the 'electronics' category, sorted by rating descending, returning only the fields needed for a product card UI. Each piece of the chain serves a specific purpose.

const filter = { category: 'electronics', isActive: true };
const projection = { _id: 1, name: 1, price: 1, thumbnailUrl: 1, rating: 1 };
const PAGE = 2;
const PAGE_SIZE = 20;

const products = await db.collection('products')
  .find(filter)                     // 1. filter
  .project(projection)              // projection
  .sort({ rating: -1, _id: -1 })   // 2. sort
  .skip((PAGE - 1) * PAGE_SIZE)    // 3. skip
  .limit(PAGE_SIZE)                 // 4. limit
  .toArray();

The Supporting Index

For the complete query chain to be efficient, you need an index that covers the filter and sort. The filter uses category and isActive (equality), and the sort uses rating and _id. The ideal compound index places equality fields first, then sort fields: { category: 1, isActive: 1, rating: -1, _id: -1 }.

// Index supporting the list API query
db.products.createIndex({ category: 1, isActive: 1, rating: -1, _id: -1 });

// Verify: explain should show IXSCAN and no SORT stage
db.products.find({ category: 'electronics', isActive: true })
  .sort({ rating: -1, _id: -1 })
  .skip(20)
  .limit(20)
  .explain('executionStats');

The Complete Mongoose Query Chain

Mongoose's fluent API makes the same query chain readable and type-safe. Chain .find(), .select(), .sort(), .skip(), and .limit(), then call .lean() for a plain POJO result (much faster than full Mongoose documents when you don't need lifecycle hooks or virtuals).

const products = await Product
  .find({ category: 'electronics', isActive: true })
  .select({ name: 1, price: 1, thumbnailUrl: 1, rating: 1, _id: 1 })
  .sort({ rating: -1, _id: -1 })
  .skip((PAGE - 1) * PAGE_SIZE)
  .limit(PAGE_SIZE)
  .lean();  // returns plain objects, not Mongoose Documents

console.log('Products on page:', products.length);

Returning Pagination Metadata

A well-designed list API response includes pagination metadata alongside the data array: the current page, page size, total document count, total page count, and whether there is a next/previous page. This lets clients render pagination controls without making a separate count request. Always return metadata and data together in one response object.

const [total, items] = await Promise.all([
  Product.countDocuments({ category: 'electronics', isActive: true }),
  Product.find({ category: 'electronics', isActive: true })
    .select({ name: 1, price: 1, thumbnailUrl: 1, rating: 1 })
    .sort({ rating: -1 })
    .skip((PAGE - 1) * PAGE_SIZE)
    .limit(PAGE_SIZE)
    .lean()
]);

res.json({
  data:       items,
  page:       PAGE,
  pageSize:   PAGE_SIZE,
  total:      total,
  totalPages: Math.ceil(total / PAGE_SIZE),
  hasNext:    PAGE * PAGE_SIZE < total,
  hasPrev:    PAGE > 1
});

Applying Default Values and Input Validation

Always validate and sanitise the page, limit, and sort query parameters before using them in a MongoDB query. Unchecked values can cause skip(-5) errors, enormous limit(999999) calls that exhaust memory, or sort injections if you pass user-provided sort keys directly. Whitelist allowed sort fields and enforce sane min/max bounds on page and limit.

const ALLOWED_SORT_FIELDS = new Set(['rating', 'price', 'createdAt']);

function parseListParams(query) {
  const page  = Math.max(1, parseInt(query.page)  || 1);
  const limit = Math.min(100, Math.max(1, parseInt(query.limit) || 20));
  const sortField = ALLOWED_SORT_FIELDS.has(query.sort) ? query.sort : 'createdAt';
  const sortDir   = query.order === 'asc' ? 1 : -1;
  return { page, limit, sort: { [sortField]: sortDir, _id: sortDir } };
}

Switching Between Offset and Keyset Pagination

You can offer both pagination modes from the same endpoint by checking for a cursor parameter (keyset) vs a page parameter (offset). When cursor is provided, apply the range filter and omit skip(). When only page is provided, use skip(). This lets you migrate clients gradually from offset to keyset pagination without breaking backward compatibility.

async function listItems(req, res) {
  const limit = 20;
  let query = Product.find({ isActive: true }).sort({ createdAt: -1, _id: -1 }).limit(limit);

  if (req.query.cursor) {
    const { createdAt, _id } = decodeCursor(req.query.cursor);
    query = query.where('$or').equals([
      { createdAt: { $lt: new Date(createdAt) } },
      { createdAt: new Date(createdAt), _id: { $lt: _id } }
    ]);
  } else if (req.query.page) {
    const page = Math.max(1, parseInt(req.query.page) || 1);
    query = query.skip((page - 1) * limit);
  }

  const items = await query.lean();
  res.json({ items, nextCursor: items.length === limit ? encodeCursor(items.at(-1)) : null });
}

Testing the Query Chain

Test your complete query chain with both unit tests (mock the driver) and integration tests (real MongoDB via an in-memory mongod or testcontainers). Seed the test collection with enough documents to verify that pagination boundaries are correct: that page 1 and page 2 together return exactly 2×pageSize distinct documents with no duplicates or gaps.

Caching Paginated Results

For read-heavy paginated APIs, consider caching responses at the HTTP level (Redis or a CDN) keyed by the full query string including page, sort, and filters. Cache TTLs of 10-60 seconds reduce database load dramatically for popular queries. Be aware that cached responses may return slightly stale data—acceptable for most use cases but not for financial or real-time dashboards.

Verifying the Full Chain With explain()

Run your complete find chain with explain('executionStats') to validate the full query plan. The ideal plan shows: IXSCAN for the filter, the same index scan serving the sort (no separate SORT stage), and nReturned equal to your limit value. Any unexpected COLLSCAN or SORT stage indicates a missing or ineffective index.

const stats = await db.collection('products')
  .find({ category: 'electronics', isActive: true })
  .sort({ rating: -1, _id: -1 })
  .skip(20)
  .limit(20)
  .explain('executionStats');

const stage = stats.executionStats.executionStages;
console.log('Stage:', stage.stage);        // should be LIMIT
console.log('Docs examined:', stats.executionStats.totalDocsExamined);
console.log('Docs returned:', stats.executionStats.nReturned);

Quick Check

Test your understanding of MongoDB & NoSQL Databases concepts from this lesson.

Lesson Recap

In this lesson you learned: MongoDB always executes filter → sort → skip → limit regardless of method chaining order, the supporting index should place equality fields first then sort fields, and pagination metadata (total, hasNext, hasPrev) should be returned alongside the data array. Next up we explore importing and exporting data with mongoimport, mongoexport, and seed scripts.

Perguntas Frequentes

A aula “Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções” é grátis?

Sim — o texto completo de “Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções” é grátis para ler aqui na web. Para praticá-la interativamente (um editor de código integrado e um tutor de IA 24/7) e desbloquear o restante do curso de MongoDB Academy, atualize para CoddyKit PRO. O curso de MongoDB Academy inclui 4 aulas no total.

O que vou aprender em “Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções”?

Você comporá uma cadeia completa de consulta com filtro, projeção, ordenação e paginação para alimentar um endpoint de lista realista. Você pratica MongoDB Academy com código prático que executa diretamente no navegador, e um tutor de IA 24/7 responde suas dúvidas enquanto trabalha na aula.

Preciso ter experiência prévia para começar MongoDB Academy?

Nenhuma experiência prévia é necessária. MongoDB Academy no CoddyKit é estruturado para alunos iniciantes até avançados, então você pode começar aqui ou desde o início e aprender no seu ritmo. Esta é a aula 4 de 4.

Quanto tempo leva a aula “Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções”?

A maioria das aulas CoddyKit leva cerca de 5–10 minutos. Cada uma é compacta e interativa, então você faz progresso constante e retoma exatamente de onde parou entre web e app.

Posso escrever e executar código nesta aula de MongoDB Academy?

Sim. Cada aula de MongoDB Academy inclui um editor de código integrado, então você escreve e executa código real direto no navegador e recebe feedback de IA instantaneamente — nenhuma configuração local necessária.

Todas as aulas deste curso

  1. Ordenação com sort() e várias chaves
  2. Skip e limit: paginação por deslocamento
  3. Paginação por conjunto de chaves com consultas por intervalo
  4. Combinando sort, skip, limit e projeções
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