$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果
您将使用 $out 和 $merge 将聚合输出写入新集合或现有集合,以支持 ETL 和物化视图。
$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果 是 CoddyKit 上的免费 MongoDB Academy 课时。 这是第 4 节课,共 4 节。 你可以在下方免费阅读本课时的完整内容 — 然后在浏览器中使用内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师进行实践。 这是 MongoDB Academy 学习路径的一部分,你的进度在网页和 CoddyKit 应用中同步。 MongoDB Academy 课程共包含 4 节课。
本课时的部分内容尚未翻译,以英文显示。
Writing Pipeline Results to Collections
By default, aggregation pipeline results are returned to the client as a cursor. Sometimes you want to persist the results into a MongoDB collection for later use as a materialised view, a reporting cache, or an ETL target. MongoDB provides two stages for this: $out, which replaces a target collection atomically, and $merge, which upserts or merges results into an existing collection.
The $out Stage
$out writes all pipeline output documents to a new or existing collection in an atomic operation. If the target collection exists, $out replaces it entirely with the new results—the old collection is dropped and the new one takes its place atomically. If it doesn't exist, MongoDB creates it. $out must be the last stage in the pipeline and returns nothing to the client.
// Materialise monthly sales summary into its own collection
db.orders.aggregate([
{ $match: { status: 'completed' } },
{ $group: {
_id: {
year: { $year: '$createdAt' },
month: { $month: '$createdAt' }
},
totalRevenue: { $sum: '$amount' },
orderCount: { $sum: 1 }
}},
{ $sort: { '_id.year': 1, '_id.month': 1 } },
{ $out: 'monthly_sales_summary' } // last stage, writes to collection
]);$out Atomicity Guarantee
$out provides atomic replacement: it writes all results to a temporary collection first, then renames the temporary collection to the target name in a single atomic operation. This means readers of the target collection always see either the old complete data or the new complete data—never a partial result. This makes $out safe for production use as a daily refresh of a reporting collection.
// Readers of 'monthly_sales_summary' always see complete data
// Even while $out is running, they see the previous full snapshot
// Only after $out completes does the new snapshot become visible
// Scheduled nightly refresh pattern:
// 1. Run at midnight: aggregate([...stages..., { $out: 'sales_report' }])
// 2. During the day: app reads from 'sales_report' (fast, pre-computed)
// 3. Next midnight: repeat
db.orders.aggregate([
...stages,
{ $out: 'sales_report' } // atomic swap
]);$out to a Different Database
Since MongoDB 4.4, $out supports an object syntax that lets you write to a collection in a different database. Specify both db (database name) and coll (collection name) in the object form. This is useful for separating operational and reporting databases on the same cluster.
// Write to a collection in a different database
db.orders.aggregate([
{ $match: { status: 'completed' } },
{ $group: { _id: '$region', revenue: { $sum: '$amount' } } },
{
$out: {
db: 'reporting', // target database
coll: 'regional_revenue' // target collection
}
}
]);
// Result is in reporting.regional_revenueThe $merge Stage
Introduced in MongoDB 4.2, $merge is more flexible than $out: instead of replacing the target collection, it upserts each output document into the target. You define the merge key (which field(s) identify existing documents), and for each output document, MongoDB decides whether to insert it, update an existing document, replace it, fail, or keep the existing document.
// Upsert daily stats into a persistent stats collection
db.events.aggregate([
{ $group: {
_id: {
date: { $dateToString: { format: '%Y-%m-%d', date: '$timestamp' } },
eventType: '$type'
},
count: { $sum: 1 }
}},
{
$merge: {
into: 'daily_event_stats',
on: ['_id'], // match key
whenMatched: 'replace', // update matching docs
whenNotMatched: 'insert' // insert new docs
}
}
]);$merge whenMatched Options
The whenMatched option controls what happens when a pipeline output document matches an existing document in the target collection. Options are: 'replace' — overwrite the existing document; 'merge' — merge fields (existing fields not in the output are kept); 'keepExisting' — do nothing, preserve the existing document; 'fail' — throw an error; or a custom pipeline for complex update logic.
// whenMatched: 'merge' - only update changed fields, keep others
db.orders.aggregate([
{ $project: { userId: 1, orderCount: { $literal: 1 } } },
{ $merge: {
into: 'user_order_counts',
on: 'userId',
whenMatched: [{ $set: { orderCount: { $add: ['$orderCount', '$$new.orderCount'] } } }],
whenNotMatched: 'insert'
}}
]);
// Custom pipeline in whenMatched adds to existing count instead of replacing$merge whenNotMatched Options
The whenNotMatched option controls what happens when a pipeline output document has no match in the target collection. Options are: 'insert' — add the new document to the target; 'discard' — ignore it (don't insert); or 'fail' — throw an error. The most common combination is whenMatched: 'replace', whenNotMatched: 'insert', which implements a full upsert.
// Full upsert: replace existing, insert new
{ $merge: {
into: 'product_stats',
on: '_id',
whenMatched: 'replace',
whenNotMatched: 'insert'
}}
// Update only existing, silently skip new
{ $merge: {
into: 'product_stats',
on: '_id',
whenMatched: 'replace',
whenNotMatched: 'discard' // only update existing products
}}Incremental Materialised Views With $merge
One of the most powerful patterns enabled by $merge is incremental materialised views: instead of recomputing the entire summary every time, you run the pipeline only on new data (using a $match on a recent timestamp) and merge the incremental results into the summary collection. This makes refresh much faster for large datasets.
// Incremental update: only process last hour of orders
const oneHourAgo = new Date(Date.now() - 3600000);
db.orders.aggregate([
{ $match: { createdAt: { $gte: oneHourAgo } } }, // only NEW data
{ $group: {
_id: '$productId',
recentRevenue: { $sum: '$amount' },
recentOrders: { $sum: 1 }
}},
{ $merge: {
into: 'product_revenue',
on: '_id',
whenMatched: [
{ $set: {
totalRevenue: { $add: ['$totalRevenue', '$$new.recentRevenue'] },
totalOrders: { $add: ['$totalOrders', '$$new.recentOrders'] }
}}
],
whenNotMatched: 'insert'
}}
]);$out vs $merge: When to Use Each
Use $out when you want a complete snapshot replacement: the target should always be the full, fresh result of the pipeline—no partial updates, no retained history. Good for nightly batch reports that replace yesterday's data. Use $merge when you want to incrementally update, append to, or upsert into an existing collection without losing data that was not re-computed in this run. Good for real-time or near-real-time aggregation that runs hourly.
// $out: nightly full replace
// Run at midnight: compute full summary, atomically replace target
{ $out: 'monthly_report' }
// $merge: hourly incremental update
// Run every hour: compute last hour's delta, merge into running total
{ $merge: {
into: 'running_totals',
on: '_id',
whenMatched: 'merge',
whenNotMatched: 'insert'
}}Permissions and Indexes on $out/$merge Targets
When $out recreates a collection, it drops all indexes on the target (except the _id index). You must recreate any secondary indexes after an $out run. $merge preserves existing indexes on the target collection. This is another reason to prefer $merge for frequently refreshed collections—you don't lose your indexes on each run.
// After $out, recreate indexes on the refreshed collection
db.orders.aggregate([...stages, { $out: 'order_summary' }]);
// Now recreate needed indexes:
db.order_summary.createIndex({ userId: 1 });
db.order_summary.createIndex({ createdAt: -1 });
// $merge preserves existing indexes automatically
// No index recreation needed after $mergeETL Pipelines With $merge
$merge enables MongoDB-native ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) pipelines: extract data from a source collection, transform it through aggregation stages, and load the results into a destination collection. This avoids the need for an external ETL tool for common data movement tasks within the same MongoDB cluster.
// ETL: clean and transform raw events into a processed_events collection
db.raw_events.aggregate([
// Extract: filter valid events
{ $match: { eventType: { $in: ['click', 'view', 'purchase'] }, userId: { $exists: true } } },
// Transform: reshape and enrich
{ $addFields: {
processedAt: '$$NOW',
eventDate: { $dateToString: { format: '%Y-%m-%d', date: '$timestamp' } }
}},
{ $project: { _id: 0, eventType: 1, userId: 1, eventDate: 1, processedAt: 1 } },
// Load: upsert into destination
{ $merge: {
into: 'processed_events',
on: ['userId', 'eventDate', 'eventType'],
whenMatched: 'keepExisting', // don't reprocess
whenNotMatched: 'insert'
}}
]);Quick Check
Test your understanding of $out and $merge pipeline stages.
Lesson Recap
In this lesson you learned: $out atomically replaces a target collection but drops secondary indexes, $merge upserts documents with configurable whenMatched and whenNotMatched behavior, and incremental materialised views with $merge allow efficient partial refreshes. This completes the Advanced Aggregation Stages course—next up we explore aggregation accumulators in depth.
常见问题解答
「$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果」课时是免费的吗?
是的 — 「$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果」的完整文本可在网页上免费阅读。要进行交互式练习(内置代码编辑器和全天候 AI 导师)并解锁 MongoDB Academy 课程的其余内容,请升级到 CoddyKit PRO。 MongoDB Academy 课程共包含 4 节课。
「$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果」这节课中我会学到什么?
您将使用 $out 和 $merge 将聚合输出写入新集合或现有集合,以支持 ETL 和物化视图。 你通过在浏览器中直接运行的动手代码来练习 MongoDB Academy,全天候 AI 导师会在你学习这节课的过程中回答你的问题。
学习 MongoDB Academy 需要有经验吗?
无需任何先前经验。CoddyKit 上的 MongoDB Academy 课程适合初学者到高级学习者,你可以从这里开始或从头开始,按照自己的节奏学习。 这是第 4 节课,共 4 节。
「$out 和 $merge:写入管道结果」课时需要多长时间?
大多数 CoddyKit 课程大约需要 5–10 分钟。每节课都很精短且互动,所以你能稳步进步,并在网页和应用中从离开的地方继续。
我能在这节 MongoDB Academy 课中编写并运行代码吗?
能。每节 MongoDB Academy 课都包含内置代码编辑器,你可以在浏览器中直接编写并运行真实代码,并获得即时 AI 反馈 — 无需本地设置。
此课程中的所有课时
- $lookup:在管道中连接集合
- $unwind:拆解数组字段
- $addFields、$replaceRoot 和 $mergeObjects
- $out 和 $merge:写入管道结果