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Query

Sort the Returned Documents

If the query bar displays the Sort option, you can specify the sort order of the returned documents.

Set the Sort Order

To set the sort order:

  1. In the Query Bar, click Options.

  2. Enter the sort document into the Sort field.

    • To specify ascending order for a field, set the field to 1 in the sort document.

    • To specify descending order for a field, set the field and -1 in the sort documents.

    Example

    The following sort document sorts results first by year in descending order, and within each year, sort by name in ascending order.

    { year: -1, name: 1 }

    As you type, the Find button is disabled and the Sort label turns red until a valid query is entered.

  3. Click Find to run the query and view the updated results.

Clear the Query

To clear the query bar and the results of the query, click Reset.

How Does the Atlas Query Compare to MongoDB and SQL Queries?

$sort corresponds to the ORDER BY ... clause in a SQL SELECT statement.

Example

You have 3,235 articles. You would like to see a list of articles sorted alphabetically by headline.

SQL
SELECT * FROM article
ORDER BY headline ASC;
MongoDB Aggregation
db.article.aggregate(
  { $sort : { headline : 1 } }
);
Atlas Sort Option
$sort : { headline : 1 }

Learn More

See the sort entry in the MongoDB Manual.

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