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👐 ORDER BY → .sort() & LIMIT → .limit()

In SQL, we use ORDER BY to sort query results and LIMIT to restrict the number of returned rows. MongoDB provides the .sort() and .limit() methods to achieve the same.

Sorting in MongoDB​

  • { field: 1 } → Ascending order (A → Z, smallest to largest)
  • { field: -1 } → Descending order (Z → A, largest to smallest)
  • You can sort by multiple fields, just like SQL.

Limiting results​

  • .limit(n) restricts the number of documents returned.
  • Used together with .sort(), it helps fetch the top N results.

1: Top 5 books with the highest inventory​

db.books.find().sort({ totalInventory: -1 }).limit(5);

Equivalent SQL query:

SELECT * FROM books ORDER BY totalInventory DESC LIMIT 5;

This fetches the 5 books with the highest stock.

2: Get the title of top 10 fiction books by highest page count​

db.books
  .find({ genres: "Fiction" }, { title: 1, pages: 1 })
  .sort({ pages: -1 })
  .limit(10);
info

Along with the title, we fetched pages, as well, to ensure that we are getting the right results.

Equivalent SQL query:

SELECT title, pages FROM books WHERE genres='Fiction' ORDER BY pages DESC LIMIT 10;

This returns the top 10 available books in the "Science Fiction" genre.

Challenge​

👐 1. Find the first 10 books alphabetically by title.​

Answer
  db.books.find({}).sort({title: 1}).limit(10)