Data ModelΒΆ

The Data Model used by MongoDB has the following hierarchy.

  • A Mongo system holds a set of databases
  • A database holds a set of collections
  • A collection holds a set of documents
  • A document is a set of fields
  • A field is a key-value pair
  • A key is a name (string)
  • A value is a
    • basic type like string, integer, float, timestamp, binary, etc.,
    • a document, or
    • an array of values

One way to see this data model is through a mapping from SQL concepts into MongoDB concepts.

MySQL term Mongo term
database database
table collection
index index
row BSON document
column BSON field
join embedding and linking
primary key id field
group by aggregation