$ne for not equal in MongoDB

Introduction

We use $ne to find items that do NOT match a certain value. It helps us exclude things we don't want.

Finding all users except those from a specific city.

Getting products that are not in a certain category.

Listing orders that are not completed.

Showing employees who are not in a particular department.

Syntax

MongoDB

{ field: { $ne: value } }

This means: find documents where field is NOT equal to value.

You can use $ne with any data type like numbers, strings, or dates.

Examples

Finds documents where the age is NOT 30.

MongoDB

{ age: { $ne: 30 } }

Finds documents where status is NOT "completed".

MongoDB

{ status: { $ne: "completed" } }

Finds documents where category is NOT "electronics".

MongoDB

{ category: { $ne: "electronics" } }

Sample Program

This query finds all orders where the status is NOT "shipped".

MongoDB

db.orders.find({ status: { $ne: "shipped" } })

Important Notes

If the field does not exist in a document, that document will be included because it is considered not equal to the value.

You can combine $ne with other conditions for more complex queries.

Summary

$ne helps find documents where a field is NOT equal to a value.

It works with many data types like numbers and strings.

Useful to exclude unwanted data in your search.