cursor – Tools for iterating over MongoDB query results

Cursor class to iterate over Mongo query results.

class pymongo.cursor.CursorType
NON_TAILABLE

The standard cursor type.

TAILABLE

The tailable cursor type.

Tailable cursors are only for use with capped collections. They are not closed when the last data is retrieved but are kept open and the cursor location marks the final document position. If more data is received iteration of the cursor will continue from the last document received.

TAILABLE_AWAIT

A tailable cursor with the await option set.

Creates a tailable cursor that will wait for a few seconds after returning the full result set so that it can capture and return additional data added during the query.

EXHAUST

An exhaust cursor.

MongoDB will stream batched results to the client without waiting for the client to request each batch, reducing latency.

class pymongo.cursor.Cursor(collection, filter=None, projection=None, skip=0, limit=0, no_cursor_timeout=False, cursor_type=CursorType.NON_TAILABLE, sort=None, allow_partial_results=False, oplog_replay=False, modifiers=None, manipulate=True)

Create a new cursor.

Should not be called directly by application developers - see find() instead.

See also

See general MongoDB documentation

cursors

c[index]

See __getitem__().

__getitem__(index)

Get a single document or a slice of documents from this cursor.

Raises InvalidOperation if this cursor has already been used.

To get a single document use an integral index, e.g.:

>>> db.test.find()[50]

An IndexError will be raised if the index is negative or greater than the amount of documents in this cursor. Any limit previously applied to this cursor will be ignored.

To get a slice of documents use a slice index, e.g.:

>>> db.test.find()[20:25]

This will return this cursor with a limit of 5 and skip of 20 applied. Using a slice index will override any prior limits or skips applied to this cursor (including those applied through previous calls to this method). Raises IndexError when the slice has a step, a negative start value, or a stop value less than or equal to the start value.

Parameters:
  • index: An integer or slice index to be applied to this cursor
add_option(mask)

Set arbitrary query flags using a bitmask.

To set the tailable flag: cursor.add_option(2)

address

The (host, port) of the server used, or None.

Changed in version 3.0: Renamed from “conn_id”.

alive

Does this cursor have the potential to return more data?

This is mostly useful with tailable cursors since they will stop iterating even though they may return more results in the future.

With regular cursors, simply use a for loop instead of alive:

for doc in collection.find():
    print(doc)

Note

Even if alive is True, next() can raise StopIteration. alive can also be True while iterating a cursor from a failed server. In this case alive will return False after next() fails to retrieve the next batch of results from the server.

batch_size(batch_size)

Limits the number of documents returned in one batch. Each batch requires a round trip to the server. It can be adjusted to optimize performance and limit data transfer.

Note

batch_size can not override MongoDB’s internal limits on the amount of data it will return to the client in a single batch (i.e if you set batch size to 1,000,000,000, MongoDB will currently only return 4-16MB of results per batch).

Raises TypeError if batch_size is not an integer. Raises ValueError if batch_size is less than 0. Raises InvalidOperation if this Cursor has already been used. The last batch_size applied to this cursor takes precedence.

Parameters:
  • batch_size: The size of each batch of results requested.
clone()

Get a clone of this cursor.

Returns a new Cursor instance with options matching those that have been set on the current instance. The clone will be completely unevaluated, even if the current instance has been partially or completely evaluated.

close()

Explicitly close / kill this cursor. Required for PyPy, Jython and other Python implementations that don’t use reference counting garbage collection.

collection

The Collection that this Cursor is iterating.

comment(comment)

Adds a ‘comment’ to the cursor.

http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/operator/comment/

Parameters:
  • comment: A string or document

New in version 2.7.

count(with_limit_and_skip=False)

Get the size of the results set for this query.

Returns the number of documents in the results set for this query. Does not take limit() and skip() into account by default - set with_limit_and_skip to True if that is the desired behavior. Raises OperationFailure on a database error.

When used with MongoDB >= 2.6, count() uses any hint() applied to the query. In the following example the hint is passed to the count command:

collection.find({‘field’: ‘value’}).hint(‘field_1’).count()

The count() method obeys the read_preference of the Collection instance on which find() was called.

Parameters:
  • with_limit_and_skip (optional): take any limit() or skip() that has been applied to this cursor into account when getting the count

Note

The with_limit_and_skip parameter requires server version >= 1.1.4-

Changed in version 2.8: The count() method now supports hint().

cursor_id

Returns the id of the cursor

Useful if you need to manage cursor ids and want to handle killing cursors manually using kill_cursors()

New in version 2.2.

distinct(key)

Get a list of distinct values for key among all documents in the result set of this query.

Raises TypeError if key is not an instance of basestring (str in python 3).

The distinct() method obeys the read_preference of the Collection instance on which find() was called.

Parameters:
  • key: name of key for which we want to get the distinct values
explain()

Returns an explain plan record for this cursor.

See also

See general MongoDB documentation

explain

hint(index)

Adds a ‘hint’, telling Mongo the proper index to use for the query.

Judicious use of hints can greatly improve query performance. When doing a query on multiple fields (at least one of which is indexed) pass the indexed field as a hint to the query. Hinting will not do anything if the corresponding index does not exist. Raises InvalidOperation if this cursor has already been used.

index should be an index as passed to create_index() (e.g. [('field', ASCENDING)]) or the name of the index. If index is None any existing hint for this query is cleared. The last hint applied to this cursor takes precedence over all others.

Parameters:
  • index: index to hint on (as an index specifier)

Changed in version 2.8: The hint() method accepts the name of the index.

limit(limit)

Limits the number of results to be returned by this cursor.

Raises TypeError if limit is not an integer. Raises InvalidOperation if this Cursor has already been used. The last limit applied to this cursor takes precedence. A limit of 0 is equivalent to no limit.

Parameters:
  • limit: the number of results to return

See also

See general MongoDB documentation

limit

max(spec)

Adds max operator that specifies upper bound for specific index.

Parameters:
  • spec: a list of field, limit pairs specifying the exclusive upper bound for all keys of a specific index in order.

New in version 2.7.

max_scan(max_scan)

Limit the number of documents to scan when performing the query.

Raises InvalidOperation if this cursor has already been used. Only the last max_scan() applied to this cursor has any effect.

Parameters:
  • max_scan: the maximum number of documents to scan
max_time_ms(max_time_ms)

Specifies a time limit for a query operation. If the specified time is exceeded, the operation will be aborted and ExecutionTimeout is raised. If max_time_ms is None no limit is applied.

Raises TypeError if max_time_ms is not an integer or None. Raises InvalidOperation if this Cursor has already been used.

Parameters:
  • max_time_ms: the time limit after which the operation is aborted
min(spec)

Adds min operator that specifies lower bound for specific index.

Parameters:
  • spec: a list of field, limit pairs specifying the inclusive lower bound for all keys of a specific index in order.

New in version 2.7.

next()

Advance the cursor.

remove_option(mask)

Unset arbitrary query flags using a bitmask.

To unset the tailable flag: cursor.remove_option(2)

retrieved

The number of documents retrieved so far.

rewind()

Rewind this cursor to its unevaluated state.

Reset this cursor if it has been partially or completely evaluated. Any options that are present on the cursor will remain in effect. Future iterating performed on this cursor will cause new queries to be sent to the server, even if the resultant data has already been retrieved by this cursor.

skip(skip)

Skips the first skip results of this cursor.

Raises TypeError if skip is not an integer. Raises ValueError if skip is less than 0. Raises InvalidOperation if this Cursor has already been used. The last skip applied to this cursor takes precedence.

Parameters:
  • skip: the number of results to skip
sort(key_or_list, direction=None)

Sorts this cursor’s results.

Pass a field name and a direction, either ASCENDING or DESCENDING:

for doc in collection.find().sort('field', pymongo.ASCENDING):
    print(doc)

To sort by multiple fields, pass a list of (key, direction) pairs:

for doc in collection.find().sort([
        ('field1', pymongo.ASCENDING),
        ('field2', pymongo.DESCENDING)]):
    print(doc)

Beginning with MongoDB version 2.6, text search results can be sorted by relevance:

cursor = db.test.find(
    {'$text': {'$search': 'some words'}},
    {'score': {'$meta': 'textScore'}})

# Sort by 'score' field.
cursor.sort([('score', {'$meta': 'textScore'})])

for doc in cursor:
    print(doc)

Raises InvalidOperation if this cursor has already been used. Only the last sort() applied to this cursor has any effect.

Parameters:
  • key_or_list: a single key or a list of (key, direction) pairs specifying the keys to sort on
  • direction (optional): only used if key_or_list is a single key, if not given ASCENDING is assumed
where(code)

Adds a $where clause to this query.

The code argument must be an instance of basestring (str in python 3) or Code containing a JavaScript expression. This expression will be evaluated for each document scanned. Only those documents for which the expression evaluates to true will be returned as results. The keyword this refers to the object currently being scanned.

Raises TypeError if code is not an instance of basestring (str in python 3). Raises InvalidOperation if this Cursor has already been used. Only the last call to where() applied to a Cursor has any effect.

Parameters:
  • code: JavaScript expression to use as a filter