Can I do a text query with the mongodb c# driver

Question

Is there a way to submit a query that is expressed in the shell query syntax to the mongo c# driver

For example Something like

Coll.find { \"myrecs\"         


        

Answer 1

Here are a few routines I use for converting from string and from .NET objects to BSON queries (this is part of business object wrapper so a couple of refs to that class):

    public QueryDocument GetQueryFromString(string jsonQuery)
    {
        return new QueryDocument(BsonSerializer.Deserialize(jsonQuery));
    }

    public IEnumerable QueryFromString(string jsonQuery, string collectionName = null)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(collectionName))
            collectionName = this.CollectionName;

        var query = GetQueryFromString(jsonQuery);            
        var items = Database.GetCollection(collectionName).Find(query);

        return items as IEnumerable;
    }


    public IEnumerable QueryFromObject(object queryObject, string collectionName = null)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(collectionName))
            collectionName = this.CollectionName;

        var query = new QueryDocument(queryObject.ToBsonDocument());
        var items = Database.GetCollection(collectionName).Find(query);

        return items as IEnumerable;
    }

Using these it's pretty easy to query via string or object parms:

var questionBus = new busQuestion();           
var json = "{ QuestionText: /elimination/, GroupName: \"Elimination\" }";
var questions = questionBus.QueryFromString(json);

foreach(var question in questions) { ... }

or using object syntax:

var questionBus = new busQuestion();            
var query = new {QuestionText = new BsonRegularExpression("/elimination/"), 
                 GroupName = "Elimination"};
var questions = questionBus.QueryFromObject(query);

foreach(var question in questions) { ... }

I like the object syntax simply because it's a bit easier to write out in C# code than dealing with embedded quotes in JSON strings if they are handcoded.