Creating MongoDB Collections with Node.js: A Practical Guide

Learn how to create collections in MongoDB using Node.js. This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide with code examples, demonstrating how to connect to your MongoDB database and use the `createCollection()` method to programmatically create new collections.

Creating Collections in MongoDB Using Node.js

Introduction

This tutorial demonstrates creating collections in MongoDB using Node.js. MongoDB is a NoSQL, document-oriented database. Unlike relational databases (like MySQL or PostgreSQL) that use tables, MongoDB uses collections to store data. This guide shows how to create a collection programmatically using Node.js.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed.
  • MongoDB installed and running (default port is 27017).
  • The MongoDB Node.js driver installed (`npm install mongodb`).
  • A database named "MongoDatabase" already exists (see previous tutorial on database creation).

Creating a Collection

The following Node.js code uses the `createCollection()` method to create a collection named "employees" within the "MongoDatabase" database:

Creating a Collection

const { MongoClient } = require('mongodb');
const url = "mongodb://localhost:27017/MongoDatabase";

MongoClient.connect(url, function(err, client) {
  if (err) throw err;
  const db = client.db('MongoDatabase');
  db.createCollection("employees", function(err, res) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log("Collection created!");
    client.close();
  });
});

Save this code as `employees.js`.

Running the Code

  1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
  2. Navigate to the directory containing `employees.js`.
  3. Run the command: node employees.js
Example Output

Collection created!

Important Note: Automatic Collection Creation

MongoDB will automatically create a collection the first time you insert a document into it. The `createCollection()` method is useful if you want to explicitly create the collection beforehand and perhaps define specific options for it (not shown in this example).

Conclusion

This tutorial showed how to create a collection in MongoDB using Node.js. Always include error handling in your code to ensure robustness.