MongoDB Why this error : can't append to array using string field name: comments - mongodb

Question

I have a DB structure like below:
{
"_id" : 1,
"comments" : [
{
"_id" : 2,
"content" : "xxx"
}
]
}
I update a new subdocument in the comments feild. It is OK.
db.test.update(
{"_id" : 1, "comments._id" : 2},
{$push : {"comments.$.comments" : {_id : 3, content:"xxx"}}}
)
after that the DB structure:
{
"_id" : 1,
"comments" : [
{
"_id" : 2,
"comments" : [
{
"id" : 3,
"content" : "xxx"
}
],
"content" : "xxx"
}
]
}
But when I update a new subdocument in the comment field that _id is 3, There is a error:
db.test.update(
{"_id" : 1, "comments.comments.id" : 3},
{$push : {"comments.comments.$.comments" : {id : 4, content:"xxx"}}}
)
error message:
can't append to array using string field name: comments

Answer 1

Well, it makes total sense if you think about it. MongoDb has the advantage and the disadvantage of solving magically certain things.
When you query the database for a specific regular field like this:
{ field : "value" }
The query {field:"value"} makes total sense, it wouldn't in case value is part of an array but Mongo solves it for you, so in case the structure is:
{ field : ["value", "anothervalue"] }
Mongo iterates through all of them and matches "value" into the field and you don't have to think about it. It works perfectly.. at only one level, because it's impossible to guess what you want to do if you have multiple levels
In your case the first query works because it's the case in this example:
db.test.update(
{"_id" : 1, "comments._id" : 2},
{$push : {"comments.$.comments" : {_id : 3, content:"xxx"}}}
)
Matches _id in the first level, and comments._id at the second level, it gets an array as a result but Mongo is able to solve it.
But in the second case, think what you need, let's isolate the where clause:
{"_id" : 1, "comments.comments.id" : 3},
"Give me from the main collection records with _id:1" (one doc)
"And comments which comments inside have and id=3" (array * array)
The first level is solved easily, comments.id, the second is not possible due comments returns an array, but one more level is an array of arrays and Mongo gets an array of arrays as a result and it's not possible to push a document into all the records of the array.
The solution is to narrow your where clause to obtain an unique document in comments (could be the first one) but it's not a good solution because you never know what is the position of the document you're looking for, using the shell I think the only option to be accurate is to do it in two steps. Check this query that works (not the solution anyway) but "solves" the multiple array part fixing it to the first record:
db.test.update(
{"_id" : 1, "comments.0.comments._id" : 3},
{$push : {"comments.0.comments.$.comments" : {id : 4, content:"xxx"}}}
)