MongoDB nested lookup with 3 levels - mongodb

Question

I need to retrieve the entire single object hierarchy from the database as a JSON. Actually, the proposal about any other solution to achieve this result would be highly appreciated. I decided to use MongoDB with its $lookup support.
So I have three collections:
party
{ "_id" : "2", "name" : "party2" }
{ "_id" : "5", "name" : "party5" }
{ "_id" : "4", "name" : "party4" }
{ "_id" : "1", "name" : "party1" }
{ "_id" : "3", "name" : "party3" }
address
{ "_id" : "a3", "street" : "Address3", "party_id" : "2" }
{ "_id" : "a6", "street" : "Address6", "party_id" : "5" }
{ "_id" : "a1", "street" : "Address1", "party_id" : "1" }
{ "_id" : "a5", "street" : "Address5", "party_id" : "5" }
{ "_id" : "a2", "street" : "Address2", "party_id" : "1" }
{ "_id" : "a4", "street" : "Address4", "party_id" : "3" }
addressComment
{ "_id" : "ac2", "address_id" : "a1", "comment" : "Comment2" }
{ "_id" : "ac1", "address_id" : "a1", "comment" : "Comment1" }
{ "_id" : "ac5", "address_id" : "a5", "comment" : "Comment6" }
{ "_id" : "ac4", "address_id" : "a3", "comment" : "Comment4" }
{ "_id" : "ac3", "address_id" : "a2", "comment" : "Comment3" }
I need to retrieve all parties with all corresponding addresses and address comments as part of the record. My aggregation:
db.party.aggregate([{
$lookup: {
from: "address",
localField: "_id",
foreignField: "party_id",
as: "address"
}
},
{
$unwind: "$address"
},
{
$lookup: {
from: "addressComment",
localField: "address._id",
foreignField: "address_id",
as: "address.addressComment"
}
}])
The result is pretty weird. Some records are ok. But Party with _id: 4 is missing (there is no address for it). Also, there are two Party _id: 1 in the result set (but with different addresses):
{
"_id": "1",
"name": "party1",
"address": {
"_id": "2",
"street": "Address2",
"party_id": "1",
"addressComment": [{
"_id": "3",
"address_id": "2",
"comment": "Comment3"
}]
}
}{
"_id": "1",
"name": "party1",
"address": {
"_id": "1",
"street": "Address1",
"party_id": "1",
"addressComment": [{
"_id": "1",
"address_id": "1",
"comment": "Comment1"
},
{
"_id": "2",
"address_id": "1",
"comment": "Comment2"
}]
}
}{
"_id": "3",
"name": "party3",
"address": {
"_id": "4",
"street": "Address4",
"party_id": "3",
"addressComment": []
}
}{
"_id": "5",
"name": "party5",
"address": {
"_id": "5",
"street": "Address5",
"party_id": "5",
"addressComment": [{
"_id": "5",
"address_id": "5",
"comment": "Comment5"
}]
}
}{
"_id": "2",
"name": "party2",
"address": {
"_id": "3",
"street": "Address3",
"party_id": "2",
"addressComment": [{
"_id": "4",
"address_id": "3",
"comment": "Comment4"
}]
}
}
Please help me with this. I'm pretty new to MongoDB but I feel it can do what I need from it.

Answer 1

The cause of your 'troubles' is the second aggregation stage - { $unwind: "$address" }. It removes record for party with _id: 4 (because its address array is empty, as you mention) and produces two records for parties _id: 1 and _id: 5 (because each of them has two addresses).
To prevent removing of parties without addresses you should set preserveNullAndEmptyArrays option of $unwind stage to true.
To prevent duplicating of parties for its different addresses you should add $group aggregation stage to your pipeline. Also, use $project stage with $filter operator to exclude empty address records in output.
db.party.aggregate([{
$lookup: {
from: "address",
localField: "_id",
foreignField: "party_id",
as: "address"
}
}, {
$unwind: {
path: "$address",
preserveNullAndEmptyArrays: true
}
}, {
$lookup: {
from: "addressComment",
localField: "address._id",
foreignField: "address_id",
as: "address.addressComment",
}
}, {
$group: {
_id : "$_id",
name: { $first: "$name" },
address: { $push: "$address" }
}
}, {
$project: {
_id: 1,
name: 1,
address: {
$filter: { input: "$address", as: "a", cond: { $ifNull: ["$$a._id", false] } }
}
}
}]);

Answer 2

With the mongodb 3.6 and above $lookup syntax it is quite simple to join nested fields without using $unwind.
db.party.aggregate([
{ "$lookup": {
"from": "address",
"let": { "partyId": "$_id" },
"pipeline": [
{ "$match": { "$expr": { "$eq": ["$party_id", "$$partyId"] }}},
{ "$lookup": {
"from": "addressComment",
"let": { "addressId": "$_id" },
"pipeline": [
{ "$match": { "$expr": { "$eq": ["$address_id", "$$addressId"] }}}
],
"as": "address"
}}
],
"as": "address"
}},
{ "$unwind": "$address" }
])