find() and findOne() methods in MongoDB showing different results

Question

I have a Mongo database where in the users collection I have just 1 document. I do a find() and a findOne() operations using the username filter. I get what I think is an incorrect result from find() operation.

MongoDB shell version: 3.2.10
connecting to: test
Server has startup warnings: 
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] 
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] ** WARNING: /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled is 'always'.
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] **        We suggest setting it to 'never'
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] 
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] ** WARNING: /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag is 'always'.
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] **        We suggest setting it to 'never'
2016-10-20T20:37:32.681-0700 I CONTROL  [initandlisten] 
> use lab2
switched to db lab2
> db.users.find()
{ "_id" : ObjectId("5807ac0765f24dd0660e4332"), "username" : "avtrulzz", "fname" : "Abc", "lname" : "Def", "email" : "[email protected]", "password" : "rootuser", "mobile" : NumberLong(1234567890) }
> db.users.findOne()
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("5807ac0765f24dd0660e4332"),
    "username" : "avtrulzz",
    "fname" : "Abc",
    "lname" : "Def",
    "email" : "[email protected]",
    "password" : "rootuser",
    "mobile" : NumberLong(1234567890)
}
> if (db.users.find({username : "noSuchUsername"})) {
... print ("Username exists"); 
... } else {
... print ("User does not exist"); }
Username exists
> if (db.users.findOne({username : "noSuchUsername"})) { print ("Username exists");  } else { print ("User does not exist"); }
User does not exist
> if (db.users.findOne({username : "avtrulzz"})) { print ("Username exists");  } else { print ("User does not exist"); }
Username exists

See the find() operation is returning user exists which is not true. findOne() is behaving correctly.

Answer 1

First of all, basic difference between findOne() and find():

• findOne() - if query matches, first document is returned, otherwise null.

• find() - no matter the number of documents matched, a cursor is returned, never null.

So when put in an if condition, findOne() can convert to false when it doesn't match any document. As find() returns a cursor object and never returns null, will convert to true when put in an if condition.

find and findOne() return the following for empty collection :