MongoDB case insensitive key search

Question

I am able to query values without regard to case, but I would like to to query keys insensitively, so users can type them in all lower case.

This doesn't work, because it is not valid JSON:

{
   /^lastName$/i: "Jones"
}

Is there a strategy I could use for this, besides just making a new collection of keys as values?

Who -1'd this? It's a reasonably valid question. Resetting to 0 — Remon van Vliet
– Remon van Vliet, Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 9:39

Gates VP · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-21 17:31:21Z

4

There is currently no way to do this.

MongoDB is "schema-free" but that should not be confused with "doesn't have a schema". There's an implicit assumption that your code has some control over the names of the keys that actually appear in the system.

Let's flip the question around.

Is there a good reason that users are inserting case-sensitive keys?
Can you just cast all keys to lower-case when they're inserted?

Again, MongoDB assumes that you have some knowledge of the available keys. Your question implies that you have no knowledge of the available keys. You'll need to close this gap.

answered Jul 21, 2011 at 17:31

Gates VP

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4 Comments

Ababneh A Over a year ago

"There is currently no way to do this." Is this answer still valid today?

Gates VP Over a year ago

This will likely always be the case. Change queries to support ranges on the key is a ton of work. Also, it cannot be indexed which is a big deal.

StingyJack Over a year ago

Rather than use terms like "no schema" or "schemaless" when explaining mongodb and similar db systems, I find it creates less confusion to say they have a variable or unrestricted schema by default.

StingyJack Over a year ago

Mongodb supports case insensitive indexing now.

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