Docs Menu

Docs HomeDevelop ApplicationsMongoDB Manual

$sum (aggregation)

On this page

  • Definition
  • Compatibility
  • Syntax
  • Behavior
  • Examples
$sum

Changed in version 5.0.

Calculates and returns the collective sum of numeric values. $sum ignores non-numeric values.

$sum is available in these stages:

You can use $sum for deployments hosted in the following environments:

  • MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

When used as an accumulator, $sum has this syntax:

{ $sum: <expression> }

When not used as an accumulator, $sum has this syntax:

{ $sum: [ <expression1>, <expression2> ... ] }

For more information on expressions, see Expression Operators.

The result will have the same type as the input except when it cannot be represented accurately in that type. In these cases:

  • A 32-bit integer will be converted to a 64-bit integer if the result is representable as a 64-bit integer.

  • A 32-bit integer will be converted to a double if the result is not representable as a 64-bit integer.

  • A 64-bit integer will be converted to double if the result is not representable as a 64-bit integer.

If used on a field that contains both numeric and non-numeric values, $sum ignores the non-numeric values and returns the sum of the numeric values.

If used on a field that does not exist in any document in the collection, $sum returns 0 for that field.

If all operands are non-numeric, $sum returns 0.

In the $group stage, if the expression resolves to an array, $sum treats the operand as a non-numerical value.

In the other supported stages:

  • With a single expression as its operand, if the expression resolves to an array, $sum traverses into the array to operate on the numerical elements of the array to return a single value.

  • With a list of expressions as its operand, if any of the expressions resolves to an array, $sum does not traverse into the array but instead treats the array as a non-numerical value.

Consider a sales collection with the following documents:

{ "_id" : 1, "item" : "abc", "price" : 10, "quantity" : 2, "date" : ISODate("2014-01-01T08:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 2, "item" : "jkl", "price" : 20, "quantity" : 1, "date" : ISODate("2014-02-03T09:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 3, "item" : "xyz", "price" : 5, "quantity" : 5, "date" : ISODate("2014-02-03T09:05:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 4, "item" : "abc", "price" : 10, "quantity" : 10, "date" : ISODate("2014-02-15T08:00:00Z") }
{ "_id" : 5, "item" : "xyz", "price" : 5, "quantity" : 10, "date" : ISODate("2014-02-15T09:05:00Z") }

Grouping the documents by the day and the year of the date field, the following operation uses the $sum accumulator to compute the total amount and the count for each group of documents.

db.sales.aggregate(
[
{
$group:
{
_id: { day: { $dayOfYear: "$date"}, year: { $year: "$date" } },
totalAmount: { $sum: { $multiply: [ "$price", "$quantity" ] } },
count: { $sum: 1 }
}
}
]
)

The operation returns the following results:

{ "_id" : { "day" : 46, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 150, "count" : 2 }
{ "_id" : { "day" : 34, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 45, "count" : 2 }
{ "_id" : { "day" : 1, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 20, "count" : 1 }

Using $sum on a non-existent field returns a value of 0. The following operation attempts to $sum on qty:

db.sales.aggregate(
[
{
$group:
{
_id: { day: { $dayOfYear: "$date"}, year: { $year: "$date" } },
totalAmount: { $sum: "$qty" },
count: { $sum: 1 }
}
}
]
)

The operation returns:

{ "_id" : { "day" : 46, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 0, "count" : 2 }
{ "_id" : { "day" : 34, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 0, "count" : 2 }
{ "_id" : { "day" : 1, "year" : 2014 }, "totalAmount" : 0, "count" : 1 }

The $count aggregation accumulator can be used in place of { $sum : 1 } in the $group stage.

Tip

See also:

A collection students contains the following documents:

{ "_id": 1, "quizzes": [ 10, 6, 7 ], "labs": [ 5, 8 ], "final": 80, "midterm": 75 }
{ "_id": 2, "quizzes": [ 9, 10 ], "labs": [ 8, 8 ], "final": 95, "midterm": 80 }
{ "_id": 3, "quizzes": [ 4, 5, 5 ], "labs": [ 6, 5 ], "final": 78, "midterm": 70 }

The following example uses the $sum in the $project stage to calculate the total quiz scores, the total lab scores, and the total of the final and the midterm:

db.students.aggregate([
{
$project: {
quizTotal: { $sum: "$quizzes"},
labTotal: { $sum: "$labs" },
examTotal: { $sum: [ "$final", "$midterm" ] }
}
}
])

The operation results in the following documents:

{ "_id" : 1, "quizTotal" : 23, "labTotal" : 13, "examTotal" : 155 }
{ "_id" : 2, "quizTotal" : 19, "labTotal" : 16, "examTotal" : 175 }
{ "_id" : 3, "quizTotal" : 14, "labTotal" : 11, "examTotal" : 148 }

New in version 5.0.

Create a cakeSales collection that contains cake sales in the states of California (CA) and Washington (WA):

db.cakeSales.insertMany( [
{ _id: 0, type: "chocolate", orderDate: new Date("2020-05-18T14:10:30Z"),
state: "CA", price: 13, quantity: 120 },
{ _id: 1, type: "chocolate", orderDate: new Date("2021-03-20T11:30:05Z"),
state: "WA", price: 14, quantity: 140 },
{ _id: 2, type: "vanilla", orderDate: new Date("2021-01-11T06:31:15Z"),
state: "CA", price: 12, quantity: 145 },
{ _id: 3, type: "vanilla", orderDate: new Date("2020-02-08T13:13:23Z"),
state: "WA", price: 13, quantity: 104 },
{ _id: 4, type: "strawberry", orderDate: new Date("2019-05-18T16:09:01Z"),
state: "CA", price: 41, quantity: 162 },
{ _id: 5, type: "strawberry", orderDate: new Date("2019-01-08T06:12:03Z"),
state: "WA", price: 43, quantity: 134 }
] )

This example uses $sum in the $setWindowFields stage to output the sum of the quantity of cakes sold in each state:

db.cakeSales.aggregate( [
{
$setWindowFields: {
partitionBy: "$state",
sortBy: { orderDate: 1 },
output: {
sumQuantityForState: {
$sum: "$quantity",
window: {
documents: [ "unbounded", "current" ]
}
}
}
}
}
] )

In the example:

  • partitionBy: "$state" partitions the documents in the collection by state. There are partitions for CA and WA.

  • sortBy: { orderDate: 1 } sorts the documents in each partition by orderDate in ascending order (1), so the earliest orderDate is first.

  • output sets the sumQuantityForState field to the sum of the quantity values using $sum that is run in a documents window.

    The window contains documents between an unbounded lower limit and the current document in the output. This means $sum returns the sum of the quantity values for the documents between the beginning of the partition and the current document.

In this output, the sum of the quantity values for CA and WA is shown in the sumQuantityForState field:

{ "_id" : 4, "type" : "strawberry", "orderDate" : ISODate("2019-05-18T16:09:01Z"),
"state" : "CA", "price" : 41, "quantity" : 162, "sumQuantityForState" : 162 }
{ "_id" : 0, "type" : "chocolate", "orderDate" : ISODate("2020-05-18T14:10:30Z"),
"state" : "CA", "price" : 13, "quantity" : 120, "sumQuantityForState" : 282 }
{ "_id" : 2, "type" : "vanilla", "orderDate" : ISODate("2021-01-11T06:31:15Z"),
"state" : "CA", "price" : 12, "quantity" : 145, "sumQuantityForState" : 427 }
{ "_id" : 5, "type" : "strawberry", "orderDate" : ISODate("2019-01-08T06:12:03Z"),
"state" : "WA", "price" : 43, "quantity" : 134, "sumQuantityForState" : 134 }
{ "_id" : 3, "type" : "vanilla", "orderDate" : ISODate("2020-02-08T13:13:23Z"),
"state" : "WA", "price" : 13, "quantity" : 104, "sumQuantityForState" : 238 }
{ "_id" : 1, "type" : "chocolate", "orderDate" : ISODate("2021-03-20T11:30:05Z"),
"state" : "WA", "price" : 14, "quantity" : 140, "sumQuantityForState" : 378 }
←  $subtract (aggregation)$switch (aggregation) →