In this tutorial, we will explore how to find documents in a MongoDB collection using PHP and convert those results into an array format. Whether you want to retrieve multiple documents based on specific criteria or fetch a single document by its unique ID, the MongoDB PHP Library provides a straightforward way to accomplish these tasks. By following the steps outlined here, you’ll be equipped to effectively interact with your MongoDB database and manipulate the data as needed in your PHP applications. Let’s get started!

To find documents in a MongoDB collection using PHP and convert them to an array, you can follow these steps:

1. Setting Up the MongoDB Client

First, ensure you have the MongoDB PHP driver installed. You can install it via Composer:

composer require mongodb/mongodb

Then, create a MongoDB client instance:

require 'vendor/autoload.php'; // Include Composer's autoloader

$client = new MongoDB\Client("mongodb://localhost:27017"); // Adjust the URI as needed
$collection = $client->yourDatabase->yourCollection; // Replace with your database and collection names

2. Finding Documents

You can use the `find()` method to retrieve documents. To convert the results to an array, you can use the `toArray()` method on the cursor returned by `find()`.

Example of Finding Multiple Documents and Converting to Array:

$cursor = $collection->find(['status' => 'active']); // Example query

// Convert the cursor to an array
$documentsArray = $cursor->toArray();

foreach ($documentsArray as $document) {
print_r($document);
}

3. Finding a Single Document

If you want to find a single document and convert it to an array, you can use `findOne()` and then cast the result to an array:

$id = 'your_object_id_here'; // Replace with your ObjectID

$document = $collection->findOne(['_id' => new MongoDB\BSON\ObjectID($id)]);

if ($document) {
$documentArray = (array) $document; // Cast to array
print_r($documentArray);
} else {
echo "Document not found.";
}

Conclusion

Using the MongoDB PHP Library, you can easily find documents and convert them to arrays. The `toArray()` method is particularly useful for converting multiple documents retrieved from a query into an array format, making it easier to work with the data in PHP.