Retrieve Distinct Values

Overview

In this guide, you can learn how to retrieve distinct values for a specified field across a single collection.

Sample Data

The example in this guide uses the following Course struct as a model for documents in the courses collection:

type Course struct {
	Title      string
	Department string
	Enrollment int32
}

To run the example, load the sample data into the db.courses collection with the following snippet:

coll := client.Database("db").Collection("courses")
docs := []interface{}{
	Course{Title: "World Fiction", Department: "English", Enrollment: 35},
	Course{Title: "Abstract Algebra", Department: "Mathematics", Enrollment: 60},
	Course{Title: "Modern Poetry", Department: "English", Enrollment: 12},
	Course{Title: "Plate Tectonics", Department: "Geology", Enrollment: 30},
}
result, err := coll.InsertMany(context.TODO(), docs)

Tip

Nonexistent Databases and Collections

If the necessary database and collection don't exist when you perform a write operation, the server implicitly creates them.

Each document contains a description of a university course that includes the course title, department, and enrollment. These items correspond to the title, department, and enrollment fields in each document.

Distinct

To retrieve distinct values for a specified field across a single collection, pass the following parameters to the Distinct() method:

The field name for which you want to retrieve the distinct values
A non-nil query filter specifying which documents to match

Tip

If you specify an empty query filter, the Distinct() method searches for distinct values across all documents in a collection.

Modify Behavior

You can modify the behavior of the Distinct() method by passing in a DistinctOptions. If you don't specify a DistinctOptions, the driver uses the default values for each option.

The DistinctOptions type allows you to configure options with the following methods:

Method	Description
`SetCollation()`	The type of language collation to use when sorting results. Default: `nil`
`SetComment()`	Sets a comment to attach to the distinct operation. Default: `nil`

Example

The following example matches documents with an enrollment field value less than 50 and prints the distinct values of the department field by using the Distinct() method:

filter := bson.D{{"enrollment", bson.D{{"$lt", 50}}}}
var arr []string
err = coll.Distinct(context.TODO(), "department", filter).Decode(&arr)
if err != nil {
	panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%s\n", arr)

[English Geology]

Retrieve Distinct Values Example: Full File

Note

Example Setup

This example connects to an instance of MongoDB by using a connection URI. To learn more about connecting to your MongoDB instance, see the Create a MongoClient guide. This example also uses the restaurants collection in the sample_restaurants database included in the Atlas sample datasets. You can load them into your database on the free tier of MongoDB Atlas by following the Get Started with Atlas Guide.

This example performs the following actions on the restaurant collection:

Matches documents in which the value of the cuisine field is "Tapas"
Returns distinct values of the borough field from the matched documents

// Retrieves distinct values of a field by using the Go driver
package main
import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"os"
	"github.com/joho/godotenv"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/v2/bson"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/v2/mongo"
	"go.mongodb.org/mongo-driver/v2/mongo/options"
)
type Restaurant struct {
	ID           bson.ObjectID `bson:"_id"`
	Name         string
	RestaurantId string `bson:"restaurant_id"`
	Cuisine      string
	Address      interface{}
	Borough      string
	Grades       interface{}
}
func main() {
	if err := godotenv.Load(); err != nil {
		log.Println("No .env file found")
	}
	var uri string
	if uri = os.Getenv("MONGODB_URI"); uri == "" {
		log.Fatal("You must set your 'MONGODB_URI' environment variable. See\n\t https://www.mongodb.com/docs/drivers/go/current/usage-examples/#environment-variable")
	}
	client, err := mongo.Connect(options.Client().ApplyURI(uri))
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer func() {
		if err = client.Disconnect(context.TODO()); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
	}()
	// Filters the collection for documents where the value of cuisine is "Tapas"
	coll := client.Database("sample_restaurants").Collection("restaurants")
	filter := bson.D{{"cuisine", "Tapas"}}
	// Retrieves the distinct values of the "borough" field in documents
	// that match the filter
	var arr []string
	err = coll.Distinct(context.TODO(), "borough", filter).Decode(&arr)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	// Prints the distinct "borough" values
	for _, result := range arr {
		fmt.Println(result)
	}
	// When you run this file, it should print:
	// Brooklyn
	// Manhattan
	// Queens
}

Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens

Additional Information

To learn about constructing a query filter, see Specify a Query.

API Documentation

To learn more about any of the methods or types discussed in this guide, see the following API Documentation:

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