How to join two collection in mongo without lookup - mongodb

Question

I have two collection, there name are post and comment.
The model structure is in the following.
I want to use aggregation query post and sort by comments like length sum, currently I can query a post comments like length sum in the following query statement.
My question is how can I query post and join comment collection in Mongo version 2.6. I know after Mongo 3.2 have a lookup function.
I want to query post collection and sort by foreign comments likes length. Is it have a best way to do this in mongo 2.6?
post
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a39e22c27308912334b4567"),
"uid": "0",
"content": "what is hello world mean?",
}
comment
/* 1 */
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a595d8c2703892c3d8b4567"),
"uid": "1",
"post_id": "5a39e22c27308912334b4567",
"comment": "hello world",
"like": [
"2"
]
}
/* 2 */
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a595d8c2703892c3d8b4512"),
"uid": "2",
"post_id": "5a39e22c27308912334b4567",
"comment": "hello stackoverflow",
"like": [
"1",
"2"
]
}
Query a post comments like sum
db.getCollection('comment').aggregate([
{
"$match": {
post_id: "5a39e22c27308912334b4567"
}
},
{
"$project": {
"likeLength": {
"$size": "$like"
},
"post_id": "$post_id"
}
},
{
"$group": {
_id: "$post_id",
"likeLengthSum": {
"$sum": "$likeLength"
}
}
}
])

Answer 1

There is no "best" way to query, as it'll really depend on your specific needs, but... you cannot perform a single query across multiple collections (aside from the $lookup aggregation pipeline function in later versions, as you already are aware).
You'll need to make multiple queries: one to your post collection, and one to your comment collection.
If you must perform a single query, then consider storing both types of documents in a single collection (with some identifier property to let you filter on either posts or comments, within your query).

Answer 2

There is no other way to join collections in the current MongoDB v6 without $lookup,
I can predict two reasons that causing you the issues,
The $lookup is slow and expensive - How to improve performance?
$lookup optimization:
Follow the guideline provided in the documentation
Use indexs:
You can use the index on the reference collection's fields, as per your sample data you can create an index for post_id field, an index for uid field, or a compound index for both the fields on the basis of your use cases
You can read more about How to Improve Performance with Indexes and Document Filters
db.comment.createIndex({ "post_id": -1 });
db.comment.createIndex({ "uid": -1 });
// or
db.comment.createIndex({ "post_id": -1, "uid": -1 });
Document Filters:
Use the $match, $limit, and $skip stages to restrict the documents that enter the pipeline
You can refer to the documentation for more detailed examples
{ $skip: 0 },
{ $limit: 10 } // as per your use case
Limit the $lookup result:
Try to limit the result of lookup by $limit stage,
Try to coordinate or balance with improved query and the UI/Use cases
You want to avoid $lookup - How to improve the collection schema to avoid $lookup?
Store the analytics/metrics:
If you are trying to get the total counts of the comments in a particular post then you must store the total count in the post collection whenever you get post get a new comment
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a39e22c27308912334b4567"),
"uid": "0",
"content": "what is hello world mean?",
// new fields
"total_comments": 10
}
Store minimum reference data:
If you want to show the comments of a particular post, you can limit the result for ex: show 5 comments per post
You can also store a max of 5 latest comments in the post collection to avoid the $lookup, whenever you get the latest comment then add it and just remove the oldest comment from 5 comments
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a39e22c27308912334b4567"),
"uid": "0",
"content": "what is hello world mean?",
// new fields
"total_comments": 10,
"comments": [
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a595d8c2703892c3d8b4567"),
"uid": "1",
"comment": "hello world"
},
{
"_id": ObjectId("5a595d8c2703892c3d8b4512"),
"uid": "2",
"comment": "hello stackoverflow"
}
]
}
Must read about Reduce $lookup Operations
Must read about Improve Your Schema