MongoDB $divide Operator

Posted in mongoDB Tutorial

Updated on Apr 07, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 16 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

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Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

In MongoDB's aggregation framework, the $divide operator serves as a fundamental tool for performing division operations on numerical data. This operator enables users to divide one number by another, facilitating various computations and transformations within aggregation pipelines.

Let's delve into the details of how the $divide operator functions and its applications within MongoDB's aggregation framework.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for the $divide method is straightforward:

syntax.js

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{ $divide: [ <dividend>, <divisor> ] }

$divide: This operator signifies that the subsequent operation will perform a division.
<dividend>: This represents the number to be divided.
<divisor>: This represents the number by which the dividend will be divided.

📝 Example

⌨️ Input

Consider a collection named sales containing documents with fields revenue and quantity, representing sales information. Here are sample documents from the sales collection:

Input

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[
  { "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6a"), "revenue": 5000, "quantity": 10 },
  { "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6b"), "revenue": 7500, "quantity": 15 },
  { "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6c"), "revenue": 10000, "quantity": 20 }
]

🔄 Aggregation

Suppose we want to calculate the average revenue per unit sold. Here's how you can achieve this using the $divide operator:

example.js

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db.sales.aggregate([
  {
    $project: {
      avgRevenuePerUnit: { $divide: ["$revenue", "$quantity"] }
    }
  }
])

🧩 Explanation

$project: This stage reshapes documents in the pipeline by including or excluding fields or computing new values.
$divide: Performs the division operation, where revenue is the dividend and quantity is the divisor.

When discussing how the above aggregation works:

For the first document: avgRevenuePerUnit = revenue / quantity = 5000 / 10 = 500
For the second document: avgRevenuePerUnit = revenue / quantity = 7500 / 15 = 500
For the third document: avgRevenuePerUnit = revenue / quantity = 10000 / 20 = 500

💻 Output

Now, let's take a look at the output generated by the aggregation pipeline:

Output

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{ "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6a"), "avgRevenuePerUnit": 500 }
{ "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6b"), "avgRevenuePerUnit": 500 }
{ "_id": ObjectId("609c26812e9274a86871bc6c"), "avgRevenuePerUnit": 500 }

📚 Use Cases

Performance Metrics:

The $divide operator is valuable for computing performance metrics such as revenue per unit, cost per unit, or average order value.
Data Transformation:

Division operations can be used to normalize values or scale data within a dataset.
Financial Analysis:

When analyzing financial data, calculating ratios or averages often involves division operations facilitated by the $divide operator.

🎉 Conclusion

The $divide operator in MongoDB's aggregation framework provides a powerful mechanism for performing division operations within aggregation pipelines. Whether you're computing performance metrics, transforming data, or conducting financial analysis, mastering the usage of $divide empowers you to efficiently manipulate numerical data and extract meaningful insights from your datasets.

With its intuitive syntax and diverse applications, the $divide operator proves to be a valuable asset for handling numerical data effectively within MongoDB. Incorporate it into your aggregation pipelines to unlock new dimensions of data analysis and gain deeper insights into your datasets.