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2dsphere Indexes

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  • sparse Property
  • Compound 2dsphere Indexes
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2dsphere indexes support geospatial queries on an earth-like sphere. For example, 2dsphere indexes can:

  • Determine points within a specified area.

  • Calculate proximity to a specified point.

  • Return exact matches on coordinate queries.

The values of the indexed field must be either:

To create a 2dsphere index, specify the string 2dsphere as the index type:

db.<collection>.createIndex( { <location field> : "2dsphere" } )

Use 2dsphere indexes to query and perform calculations on location data where the data points appear on Earth, or another spherical surface. For example:

  • A food delivery application uses 2dsphere indexes to support searches for nearby restaurants.

  • A route planning application uses 2dsphere indexes to calculate the shortest distance between rest stops.

  • A city planner uses 2dsphere indexes to find parks that exist within city limits.

To learn how to create and query 2dsphere indexes, see:

2dsphere indexes are always sparse and have special behaviors when created as part of a compound index.

2dsphere indexes are always sparse. When you create a 2dsphere index, MongoDB ignores the sparse option.

If an existing or newly inserted document does not contain a 2dsphere index field (or the field is null or an empty array), MongoDB does not add an entry for the document to the index.

  • For a compound index that includes a 2dsphere index key along with keys of other types, only the 2dsphere index field determines whether the index references a document.

  • A compound 2dsphere index can reference multiple location and non-location fields. In contrast, a compound 2d index can only reference one location field and one other field.

←  Geospatial IndexesCreate a 2dsphere Index →