Project first item in an array to new field (MongoDB aggregation)
Update:
Starting from v4.4 there is a dedicated operator $first:
{ $project: { user: { $first: "$users" }, otherField: 1}},
It's a syntax sugar to the
Original answer:
You can use arrayElemAt:
{ $project: { user: { $arrayElemAt: [ "$users", 0 ] }, otherField: 1}},
Starting Mongo 4.4
, the aggregation operator $first
can be used to access the first element of an array:
// { "users": ["Jean", "Paul", "Jack"] }// { "users": ["Claude"] }db.collection.aggregate([ { $project: { user: { $first: "$users" } } }])// { "user" : "Jean" }// { "user" : "Claude" }
If it is an array of objects and you want to use just single object field, ie:
{ "users": [ {name: "John", surname: "Smith"}, {name: "Elon", surname: "Gates"} ]}
you can use:
{ $project: { user: { $first: "$users.name" } }
Edit (exclude case - after comment from @haytham)
In order to exclude a single field from a nested document in array you have to do 2 projections:
{ $project: { user: { $first: "$users" } }
Which return whole first object, and then exclude field you do not want, ie:
{ $project: { "user.name" : 0 }