How can I rename a collection in MongoDB?

Question

Is there a dead easy way to rename a collection in mongo? Something like:

db.originalCollectionName.rename('newCollectionName');

And if not, what is the best way to go about effectively renaming one?

Roswell

Answer 1

Close. Use db.originalCollectionName.renameCollection('newCollectionName')

See http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/renameCollection+Command

Benjaminbenji

hint: try using tab complete to find things you think might be there ;) – Benjaminbenji

+1 I also found that this will error if the collection that you wish to rename to (the 'target collection name') already exists. IF you are happy for said collection to be dropped; then you can pass 'true' as the second argument, e.g. db.originalCollName.renameCollection('alreadyExistingCollName', true) – Bates

after the rename, will the indexes and everything be kept? – Ryun

How can I make the old one variable, such as db[old].rename..? – Leigh

Answer 2

For those who cannot rename, because the name causes an issue like: SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL, it is because the name is illegal.

You can work around this by calling with brackets notation: db["oldCollectionILLEGALName"].renameCollection("someBetterName")

Limner

db.getCollection("oldCollectionILLEGALName").renameCollection("someBetterName") should also work. I had renamed my collection to _old_collection_name and this saved me. – Maxine

Thanks buddy, this solved my issue. I am currently learning Mongo and in a rush I ended up naming my collection as 'employee-detail' and was stuck with the error. This was a good learning. – Teutonize

Answer 3

Assume that the database name is "mytestdb" and collection name is "orders". collection name change to orders2015 The simplest way is,

> use mytestdb
> db.orders.renameCollection( "orders2015" )

Note : db.collection.renameCollection() is not supported on sharded collections.

Playboy

Answer from 2015 still valid as of today, plus one. – Leigh

Answer 4

In case you are using Node.js MongoDB driver:

mongoClient.db(dbName).collection('oldName').rename("newName");

https://mongodb.github.io/node-mongodb-native/3.5/api/Collection.html#rename

my case was using mongoose:

await mongoose.connection.collection("oldName").rename("newName");

Identity

Always remember, mongo is not js is not nodejs. So look at the difference, therefore plus one. – Leigh

Answer 5

Rename a collection in cmd:

cd C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin
mongo
use yourdb
db.yourcollection.renameCollection("someBetterName")

This example is made for MongoDB 4.2

Twilatwilight

Answer 6

You can use the following syntax to rename an existing collection in MongoDB.

db.originalCollectionName.renameCollection('newCollectionName')

For instance, if your existing collection name is 'demo' and want to rename to 'demo_updated' then, the query would be as follows:-

db.demo.renameCollection('demo_updated')

Thanks!

Lazy