Return range of documents around ID in MongoDB

mongodb, mongodb-query

Solution

Did you know that ObjectID's contain a timestamp? And that therefore they always represent the natural insertion order. So if you are looking for documents before an after a known document `_id` you can do this:

Our documents:

{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2d80f936e03d1a1d1c8"), "a" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2db0f936e03d1a1d1c9"), "b" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2de0f936e03d1a1d1ca"), "c" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e20f936e03d1a1d1cb"), "d" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e50f936e03d1a1d1cc"), "e" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e90f936e03d1a1d1cd"), "f" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2ec0f936e03d1a1d1ce"), "g" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2ee0f936e03d1a1d1cf"), "h" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2f10f936e03d1a1d1d0"), "i" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2f50f936e03d1a1d1d1"), "j" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f3020f936e03d1a1d1d2"), "j" : 1 }

So we know the `_id` of "f", get it and the next 2 documents:

> db.items.find({ _id: {$gte: ObjectId("5307f2e90f936e03d1a1d1cd") } }).limit(3)

{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e90f936e03d1a1d1cd"), "f" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2ec0f936e03d1a1d1ce"), "g" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2ee0f936e03d1a1d1cf"), "h" : 1 }

And do the same in reverse:

> db.items.find({ _id: {$lte: ObjectId("5307f2e90f936e03d1a1d1cd") } })
    .sort({ _id: -1 }).limit(3)
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e90f936e03d1a1d1cd"), "f" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e50f936e03d1a1d1cc"), "e" : 1 }
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5307f2e20f936e03d1a1d1cb"), "d" : 1 }

And that's a much better approach than scanning a collection.

Problem

I have an ID of a document and need to return the document plus the 10 documents that come before and the 10 documents after it. 21 docs total. I do not have a start or end value from any key. Only the limit in either direction. Best way to do this? Thank you in advance.

Original source