How to export collection to CSV in MongoDB? - mongodb

Question

How do you export all the records in a MongoDB collection to a .csv file?
mongoexport --host localhost --db dbname --collection name --type=csv > test.csv
This asks me to specify name of the fields I need to export. Can I just export all the fields without specifying the names of fields?

Answer 1

#karoly-horvath has it right. Fields are required for csv.
According to this bug in the MongoDB issue tracker https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-4224 you MUST provide the fields when exporting to a csv. The docs are not clear on it. That is the reason for the error.
Try this:
mongoexport --host localhost --db dbname --collection name --csv --out text.csv --fields firstName,middleName,lastName
UPDATE:
This commit: https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-tools/commit/586c00ef09c32c77907bd20d722049ed23065398 fixes the docs for 3.0.0-rc10 and later. It changes
Fields string `long:"fields" short:"f" description:"comma separated list of field names, e.g. -f name,age"`
to
Fields string `long:"fields" short:"f" description:"comma separated list of field names (required for exporting CSV) e.g. -f \"name,age\" "`
VERSION 3.0 AND ABOVE:
You should use --type=csv instead of --csv since it has been deprecated.
More details: https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/program/mongoexport/#export-in-csv-format
Full command:
mongoexport --host localhost --db dbname --collection name --type=csv --out text.csv --fields firstName,middleName,lastName

Answer 2

Also, you are not allowed spaces between comma separated field names.
BAD:
-f firstname, lastname
GOOD:
-f firstname,lastname

Answer 3

mongoexport --help
....
-f [ --fields ] arg comma separated list of field names e.g. -f name,age
--fieldFile arg file with fields names - 1 per line
You have to manually specify it and if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. MongoDB is schemaless; CSV, on the other hand, has a fixed layout for columns. Without knowing what fields are used in different documents it's impossible to output the CSV dump.
If you have a fixed schema perhaps you could retrieve one document, harvest the field names from it with a script and pass it to mongoexport.

Answer 4

If you want, you can export all collections to csv without specifying --fields (will export all fields).
From http://drzon.net/export-mongodb-collections-to-csv-without-specifying-fields/ run this bash script
OIFS=$IFS;
IFS=",";
# fill in your details here
dbname=DBNAME
user=USERNAME
pass=PASSWORD
host=HOSTNAME:PORT
# first get all collections in the database
collections=`mongo "$host/$dbname" -u $user -p $pass --eval "rs.slaveOk();db.getCollectionNames();"`;
collections=`mongo $dbname --eval "rs.slaveOk();db.getCollectionNames();"`;
collectionArray=($collections);
# for each collection
for ((i=0; i<${#collectionArray[#]}; ++i));
do
echo 'exporting collection' ${collectionArray[$i]}
# get comma separated list of keys. do this by peeking into the first document in the collection and get his set of keys
keys=`mongo "$host/$dbname" -u $user -p $pass --eval "rs.slaveOk();var keys = []; for(var key in db.${collectionArray[$i]}.find().sort({_id: -1}).limit(1)[0]) { keys.push(key); }; keys;" --quiet`;
# now use mongoexport with the set of keys to export the collection to csv
mongoexport --host $host -u $user -p $pass -d $dbname -c ${collectionArray[$i]} --fields "$keys" --csv --out $dbname.${collectionArray[$i]}.csv;
done
IFS=$OIFS;

Answer 5

works for me remoting to a docker container with mongo:4.2.6
mongoexport -h mongodb:27017 --authenticationDatabase=admin -u username -p password -d database -c collection -q {"created_date": { "$gte": { "$date": "2020-08-03T00:00:00.000Z" }, "$lt": { "$date": "2020-08-09T23:59:59.999Z" } } } --fields=somefield1,somefield2 --type=csv --out=/archive.csv

Answer 6

Easy export csv or json file With Mongo Compass tool
Mongo Compass As the GUI for MongoDB, MongoDB Compass allows you to make smarter decisions about document structure, querying, indexing, document validation, and more. Commercial subscriptions include technical support for MongoDB Compass.
https://www.mongodb.com/try/download/compass

Answer 7

I could not get mongoexport to do this for me. I found that,to get an exhaustive list of all the fields, you need to loop through the entire collection once. Use this to generate the headers. Then loop through the collection again to populate these headers for each document.
I've written a script to do just this. Converting MongoDB docs to csv irrespective of schema differences between individual documents.
https://github.com/surya-shodan/mongoexportcsv

Answer 8

Also if you want to export inner json fields use dot (. operator).
JSON record:
{
"_id" : "00118685076F2C77",
"value" : {
"userIds" : [
"u1"
],
"deviceId" : "dev"
}
mongoexport command with dot operator (using mongo version 3.4.7):
./mongoexport --host localhost --db myDB --collection myColl
--type=csv --out out.csv --fields value.deviceId,value.userIds
Output csv:
value.deviceId,value.userIds
d1,"[""u1""]"
d2,"[""u2""]"
Note: Make sure you do not export an array. It would corrupt the CSV format like field userIds shown above

Answer 9

Solution for MongoDB Atlas users!
Add the --fields parameter as comma separated field names enclosed in double inverted quotes:
--fields "<FIELD 1>,<FIELD 2>..."
This is complete example:
mongoexport --host Cluster0-shard-0/shard1URL.mongodb.net:27017,shard2URL.mongodb.net:27017,shard3URL.mongodb.net:27017 --ssl --username <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD> --authenticationDatabase admin --db <DB NAME> --collection <COLLECTION NAME> --type <OUTPUT FILE TYPE> --out <OUTPUT FILE NAME> --fields "<FIELD 1>,<FIELD 2>..."

Answer 10

This working for me Try it
mongoexport --host cluster0-shard-dummy-link.mongodb.net:27017 --db yourdbname --forceTableScan --collection users --type json --out /var/www/html/user.json --authenticationDatabase admin --ssl --username Yourusername --password Yourpassword
Above cmd return whole data of the users collection
if you want filter field then add --fields=email,name

Answer 11

For all those who are stuck with an error.
Let me give you guys a solution with a brief explanation of the same:-
command to connect:-
mongoexport --host your_host --port your_port -u your_username -p your_password --db your_db --collection your_collection --type=csv --out file_name.csv --fields all_the_fields --authenticationDatabase admin
--host --> host of Mongo server
--port --> port of Mongo server
-u --> username
-p --> password
--db --> db from which you want to export
--collection --> collection you want to export
--type --> type of export in my case CSV
--out --> file name where you want to export
--fields --> all the fields you want to export (don't give spaces in between two field name in between commas in case of CSV)
--authenticationDatabase --> database where all your user information is stored

Answer 12

Below command used to export collection to CSV format.
Note: naag is database, employee1_json is a collection.
mongoexport --db naag--collection employee1_json --type csv --out /home/orienit/work/mongodb/employee1_csv_op1