How to change the type of a field?

I am trying to change the type of a field from within the mongo shell.

I am doing this...

db.meta.update(
  {'fields.properties.default': { $type : 1 }}, 
  {'fields.properties.default': { $type : 2 }}
)

But it's not working!

The only way to change the $type of the data is to perform an update on the data where the data has the correct type.

In this case, it looks like you're trying to change the $type from 1 (double) to 2 (string).

So simply load the document from the DB, perform the cast (new String(x)) and then save the document again.

If you need to do this programmatically and entirely from the shell, you can use the find(...).forEach(function(x) {}) syntax.

---

In response to the second comment below. Change the field bad from a number to a string in collection foo.

db.foo.find( { 'bad' : { $type : 1 } } ).forEach( function (x) {   
  x.bad = new String(x.bad); // convert field to string
  db.foo.save(x);
});

Convert String field to Integer:

db.db-name.find({field-name: {$exists: true}}).forEach(function(obj) { 
    obj.field-name = new NumberInt(obj.field-name);
    db.db-name.save(obj);
});

Convert Integer field to String:

db.db-name.find({field-name: {$exists: true}}).forEach(function(obj) {
    obj.field-name = "" + obj.field-name;
    db.db-name.save(obj);
});

Starting Mongo 4.2, db.collection.update() can accept an aggregation pipeline, finally allowing the update of a field based on its own value:

// { a: "45", b: "x" }
// { a:  53,  b: "y" }
db.collection.update(
  { a : { $type: 1 } },
  [{ $set: { a: { $toString: "$a" } } }],
  { multi: true }
)
// { a: "45", b: "x" }
// { a: "53", b: "y" }

• The first part { a : { $type: 1 } } is the match query:

• It filters which documents to update.

• In this case, since we want to convert "a" to string when its value is a double, this matches elements for which "a" is of type 1 (double)).

• This table provides the codes representing the different possible types.

• The second part [{ $set: { a: { $toString: "$a" } } }] is the update aggregation pipeline:

• Note the squared brackets signifying that this update query uses an aggregation pipeline.

• $set is a new aggregation operator (Mongo 4.2) which in this case modifies a field.

• This can be simply read as "$set" the value of "a" to "$a" converted "$toString".

• What's really new here, is being able in Mongo 4.2 to reference the document itself when updating it: the new value for "a" is based on the existing value of "$a".

• Also note "$toString" which is a new aggregation operator introduced in Mongo 4.0.

• Don't forget { multi: true }, otherwise only the first matching document will be updated.

---

In case your cast isn't from double to string, you have the choice between different conversion operators introduced in Mongo 4.0 such as $toBool, $toInt, ...

And if there isn't a dedicated converter for your targeted type, you can replace { $toString: "$a" } with a $convert operation: { $convert: { input: "$a", to: 2 } } where the value for to can be found in this table:

db.collection.update(
  { a : { $type: 1 } },
  [{ $set: { a: { $convert: { input: "$a", to: 2 } } } }],
  { multi: true }
)

For string to int conversion.

db.my_collection.find().forEach( function(obj) {
    obj.my_value= new NumberInt(obj.my_value);
    db.my_collection.save(obj);
});

For string to double conversion.

    obj.my_value= parseInt(obj.my_value, 10);

For float:

    obj.my_value= parseFloat(obj.my_value);

db.coll.find().forEach(function(data) {
    db.coll.update({_id:data._id},{$set:{myfield:parseInt(data.myfield)}});
})

all answers so far use some version of forEach, iterating over all collection elements client-side.

However, you could use MongoDB's server-side processing by using aggregate pipeline and $out stage as :

> the $out stage atomically replaces the existing collection with the > new results collection.

example:

db.documents.aggregate([
         {
            $project: {
               _id: 1,
               numberField: { $substr: ['$numberField', 0, -1] },
               otherField: 1,
               differentField: 1,
               anotherfield: 1,
               needolistAllFieldsHere: 1
            },
         },
         {
            $out: 'documents',
         },
      ]);

To convert a field of string type to date field, you would need to iterate the cursor returned by the find() method using the forEach() method, within the loop convert the field to a Date object and then update the field using the $set operator.

Take advantage of using the Bulk API for bulk updates which offer better performance as you will be sending the operations to the server in batches of say 1000 which gives you a better performance as you are not sending every request to the server, just once in every 1000 requests.

The following demonstrates this approach, the first example uses the Bulk API available in MongoDB versions >= 2.6 and < 3.2. It updates all the documents in the collection by changing all the created_at fields to date fields:

var bulk = db.collection.initializeUnorderedBulkOp(),
	counter = 0;

db.collection.find({"created_at": {"$exists": true, "$type": 2 }}).forEach(function (doc) {
	var newDate = new Date(doc.created_at);
    bulk.find({ "_id": doc._id }).updateOne({ 
        "$set": { "created_at": newDate}
    });

    counter++;
    if (counter % 1000 == 0) {
        bulk.execute(); // Execute per 1000 operations and re-initialize every 1000 update statements
        bulk = db.collection.initializeUnorderedBulkOp();
    }
})
// Clean up remaining operations in queue
if (counter % 1000 != 0) { bulk.execute(); }

The next example applies to the new MongoDB version 3.2 which has since deprecated the Bulk API and provided a newer set of apis using bulkWrite():

var bulkOps = [];

db.collection.find({"created_at": {"$exists": true, "$type": 2 }}).forEach(function (doc) { 
    var newDate = new Date(doc.created_at);
    bulkOps.push(         
		{ 
			"updateOne": { 
				"filter": { "_id": doc._id } ,              
				"update": { "$set": { "created_at": newDate } } 
			}         
		}			
	);     
})

db.collection.bulkWrite(bulkOps, { "ordered": true });

To convert int32 to string in mongo without creating an array just add "" to your number :-)

db.foo.find( { 'mynum' : { $type : 16 } } ).forEach( function (x) {   
  x.mynum = x.mynum + ""; // convert int32 to string
  db.foo.save(x);
});

What really helped me to change the type of the object in MondoDB was just this simple line, perhaps mentioned before here...:

db.Users.find({age: {$exists: true}}).forEach(function(obj) {
    obj.age = new NumberInt(obj.age);
    db.Users.save(obj);
});

Users are my collection and age is the object which had a string instead of an integer (int32).

You can easily convert the string data type to numerical data type.
Don't forget to change collectionName & FieldName.
for ex : CollectionNmae : Users & FieldName : Contactno.

Try this query..

db.collectionName.find().forEach( function (x) {
x.FieldName = parseInt(x.FieldName);
db.collectionName.save(x);
});

I need to change datatype of multiple fields in the collection, so I used the following to make multiple data type changes in the collection of documents. Answer to an old question but may be helpful for others.

db.mycoll.find().forEach(function(obj) { 

    if (obj.hasOwnProperty('phone')) {
        obj.phone = "" + obj.phone;  // int or longint to string
    }

    if (obj.hasOwnProperty('field-name')) {
     obj.field-name = new NumberInt(obj.field-name); //string to integer
    }

    if (obj.hasOwnProperty('cdate')) {
        obj.cdate = new ISODate(obj.cdate); //string to Date
    }

    db.mycoll.save(obj); 
});

demo change type of field mid from string to mongo objectId using mongoose

 Post.find({}, {mid: 1,_id:1}).exec(function (err, doc) {
             doc.map((item, key) => {
                Post.findByIdAndUpdate({_id:item._id},{$set:{mid: mongoose.Types.ObjectId(item.mid)}}).exec((err,res)=>{
                    if(err) throw err;
                    reply(res);
                });
            });
        });

Mongo ObjectId is just another example of such styles as

Number, string, boolean that hope the answer will help someone else.

I use this script in mongodb console for string to float conversions...

db.documents.find({ 'fwtweaeeba' : {$exists : true}}).forEach( function(obj) { 
        obj.fwtweaeeba = parseFloat( obj.fwtweaeeba ); 
        db.documents.save(obj); } );    
    
db.documents.find({ 'versions.0.content.fwtweaeeba' : {$exists : true}}).forEach( function(obj) { 
        obj.versions[0].content.fwtweaeeba = parseFloat( obj.versions[0].content.fwtweaeeba ); 
        db.documents.save(obj); } );
    
db.documents.find({ 'versions.1.content.fwtweaeeba' : {$exists : true}}).forEach( function(obj) { 
        obj.versions[1].content.fwtweaeeba = parseFloat( obj.versions[1].content.fwtweaeeba );  
        db.documents.save(obj); } );
    
db.documents.find({ 'versions.2.content.fwtweaeeba' : {$exists : true}}).forEach( function(obj) { 
        obj.versions[2].content.fwtweaeeba = parseFloat( obj.versions[2].content.fwtweaeeba );  
        db.documents.save(obj); } );

And this one in php)))

foreach($db->documents->find(array("type" => "chair")) as $document){
    $db->documents->update(
        array('_id' => $document[_id]),
        array(
            '$set' => array(
                'versions.0.content.axdducvoxb' => (float)$document['versions'][0]['content']['axdducvoxb'],
                'versions.1.content.axdducvoxb' => (float)$document['versions'][1]['content']['axdducvoxb'],
                'versions.2.content.axdducvoxb' => (float)$document['versions'][2]['content']['axdducvoxb'],
                'axdducvoxb' => (float)$document['axdducvoxb']
            )
        ),
        array('$multi' => true)
    );


}