How to populate reference stored in different collection?

Question

I have a following monogodb collections

coll1       coll2
--------     -------
_id          _id
name         coll1_ids

coll2 can have multiple reference to coll1 but coll1 will only have one reference

I want to populate coll2 data in coll1. Is there easier way to do it without using aggregation in Node.js. Thank you!!!

Without aggregation, you will have to query multiple times, which can create an unnecessary load on the database. Any specific reason, why you don't want to use aggregation pipeline? — Charchit Kapoor, Mar 13 '23 at 09:36
With aggregation, I'm having the same issue. It is taking too much time. — Shalini Singh, Mar 13 '23 at 10:19
Time is a function of the collection size. Do you want to update the documents in collection1 permanently, or it's just a requirement of an api. — Charchit Kapoor, Mar 13 '23 at 11:13
Then you must benchmark the current schema, and then a modified version, where you store the data in a single collection. I think that might be good for you. — Charchit Kapoor, Mar 13 '23 at 16:23
Also, if you can add your current aggregation based query, maybe we can suggest some optimizations there. — Charchit Kapoor, Mar 13 '23 at 16:23
`coll1_ids` field in coll2 is an array of ids of multiple documents from coll1? — Munam Tariq, Mar 19 '23 at 20:48

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '23 at 17:23

You can use Mongoose virtual, you need to define virtual in coll1 schema and you can use those virtual in populate like below for example

coll1Schema.virtual('coll2Data', {
    ref: "coll2",
    localField: "_id",
    foreignField: "coll1_ids"
});

then you need to pass that virtual name in Mongoose populate function for example

Coll1.find().populte("coll2Data")

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 10 '23 at 05:55

0

for speed, you can also use indexing in MongoDB.

and if you use Mongoose for MongoDB connection then you can use Populate also

answered Apr 10 '23 at 05:55

Harshad-rk

2 Answers2