Mongodb aggregation sort on array primative - mongodb

Question

Given documents like
{
...
name:'whatever',
games: [122, 199, 201, 222]
}
db.col.aggregate({$match:{}},
{$sort:{'games.0': -1}})
doesn't sort ... no errors ... it just doesn't sort on the first array element of the games array.
Although a query with the same syntac .. works fine
col.find({}).sort({'games.0':-1})
if I change the collection so games is an array of objects like
[ {game1:198}, {game2:201} ...]
then the aggregation works using
{$sort:{'games.game1': -1}})
what am I missing to get this to work with an array of numbers?

Answer 1

Try unwinding the array first by applying the $unwind operator on the array, then use $sort on the deconstructed array and finally use $group to get the original documents structure:
db.coll.aggregate([
{"$unwind": "$games"},
{"$sort": {"games": 1}},
{
"$group": {
"_id": "$_id",
"name": {"$first": "$name"},
"games": {"$push": "$games"}
}
}
])

Answer 2

Try this:
db.coll.aggregate([
{"$unwind": "$games"},
{"$sort": {"games": -1}}
]}
I hope this will work for you as you expected.

Answer 3

In mongo 3.4 find sort i.e. db.col.find({}).sort({'games.0':-1}) works as expected whereas aggregation sort doesn't.
In mongo 3.6 both find and aggregation sort works as expected.
Jira issue for that: https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-19402
I would recommend you to update your mongo version and your aggregation query will work fine.