{ "_id" : 1, "item" : "abc", "price" : 12, "quantity" : 2 }
{ "_id" : 2, "item" : "jkl", "price" : 20, "quantity" : 1 }
{ "_id" : 3  }
Another collection inventory contains the following documents:
{ "_id" : 1, "sku" : "abc", description: "product 1", "instock" : 120 }
{ "_id" : 2, "sku" : "def", description: "product 2", "instock" : 80 }
{ "_id" : 3, "sku" : "ijk", description: "product 3", "instock" : 60 }
{ "_id" : 4, "sku" : "jkl", description: "product 4", "instock" : 70 }
{ "_id" : 5, "sku": null, description: "Incomplete" }
{ "_id" : 6 }
The following aggregation operation on the orders collection
joins the documents from orders with the documents from the
inventory collection using the fields item from the
orders collection and the sku field from the inventory
collection:
db.orders.aggregate([
      $lookup:
          from: "inventory",
          localField: "item",
          foreignField: "sku",
          as: "inventory_docs"
The operation returns the following documents:
  "_id" : 1,
   "item" : "abc",
  "price" : 12,
  "quantity" : 2,
  "inventory_docs" : [
    { "_id" : 1, "sku" : "abc", description: "product 1", "instock" : 120 }
  "_id" : 2,
  "item" : "jkl",
  "price" : 20,
  "quantity" : 1,
  "inventory_docs" : [
    { "_id" : 4, "sku" : "jkl", "description" : "product 4", "instock" : 70 }
  "_id" : 3,
  "inventory_docs" : [
    { "_id" : 5, "sku" : null, "description" : "Incomplete" },
    { "_id" : 6 }
Use $lookup with an Array¶
If your localField is an array and you’d like to match the elements
inside it against a foreignField which is a single element, you’ll
need to $unwind the array as one stage of the aggregation
pipline.
Consider a collection orders with the following document:
{ "_id" : 1, "item" : "MON1003", "price" : 350, "quantity" : 2, "specs" :
[ "27 inch", "Retina display", "1920x1080" ], "type" : "Monitor" }
Another collection inventory contains the following documents:
{ "_id" : 1, "sku" : "MON1003", "type" : "Monitor", "instock" : 120,
"size" : "27 inch", "resolution" : "1920x1080" }
{ "_id" : 2, "sku" : "MON1012", "type" : "Monitor", "instock" : 85,
"size" : "23 inch", "resolution" : "1280x800" }
{ "_id" : 3, "sku" : "MON1031", "type" : "Monitor", "instock" : 60,
"size" : "23 inch", "display_type" : "LED" }
The following aggregation operation performs a join on documents in the
orders collection which match a particular element of the specs
array to the size field in the inventory collection.
db.orders.aggregate([
      $unwind: "$specs"
      $lookup:
            from: "inventory",
            localField: "specs",
            foreignField: "size",
            as: "inventory_docs"
      $match: { "inventory_docs": { $ne: [] } }
The operation returns the following document:
   "_id" : 1,
   "item" : "MON1003",
   "price" : 350,
   "quantity" : 2,
   "specs" : "27 inch",
   "type" : "Monitor",
   "inventory_docs" : [
         "_id" : 1,
         "sku" : "MON1003",
         "type" : "Monitor",
         "instock" : 120,
         "size" : "27 inch",
         "resolution" : "1920x1080"