Mongo shell execute query from file and show result

Put this into your query.js file:

function get_results (result) {    print(tojson(result));}db.col.find().forEach(get_results)

and run:

mongo db_name query.js

Here's a good explanation why you should do it this way.

The simplest way I found of running mongodb queries from a file and seeing the output in the console is this:

query.js:

use my_db;db.my_collection.findOne()

On the command line:mongo <query.js

This displays all the output to the console, as if you were running the queries in the mongo shell individually.

Good information here - wanted to point out that mongo provides a printjson() function so there is no need to write your own unless you need more functionality than printjson() provides.

Example Mongo file (test.js)

// Pretty print all documents in test.scratchuse testdb.scratch.find().forEach(printjson)

Command

mongo < test.js

If you want to omit use test from the mongo file, perhaps to remove IDE error indications for js files, you can specify the target db on the command line:

mongo test < test.js

Interesting to note: the above examples use a redirect to push the file into the mongo shell. This calling convention allows you to enter commands just as you would in the shell; including mongo shell convenience commands like use test.

Mongo provides another script calling convention: mongo test test.js which omits the redirect operator. This calling convention requires test.js to be proper javascript and cannot use the mongo shell convenience methods like use test; one would use the javascript equivalents like getSiblingDB().