How to get removed document in MongoDB?

Question

Is it possible to get the document that was removed from MongoDB?

result = db.things.remove({_id: id})
// is there a result.removedObjects?

Answer 1

It is possible, but it requires a different command. You are looking for the findAndModify command.

If you set the options to {query: ..., remove: true, new: false}, you will delete a single document and return the removed document.

Some notes:

• new is a keyword in many languages, ensure that you are wrapping the text of the flag correctly.
• the findAndModify will only work with a single document. This is fine for deleting _id but not good for ranged removes.