Null

In MongoDB, the null data type represents a missing value or a field that’s purposely set to have no value. This is an important data type when you need to represent the absence of a value in a specific field, for example, when a field is optional in your documents.

Null in BSON

MongoDB uses BSON (Binary JSON) as its data model for storage. In BSON, the null data type is represented by the type number 0x0A.

Using Null Values in MongoDB

Here’s an example to illustrate how to use the null data type in MongoDB:

db.users.insertOne({
  name: 'Alice',
  email: 'alice@example.com',
  phone: null,
});

In this example, we’re inserting a new document into the users collection with the name, email, and phone fields. For the phone field, instead of leaving it out, we explicitly set it to null, making it clear that Alice might have a phone number, but it’s currently unknown.

Comparison with Null

When comparing values to null, MongoDB will use the following rules:

• Equality: null is equal to null.
• Inequalities: null is considered lower than any other value when it comes to inequalities.

Keep in mind that there are cases when a field is missing from a document, it might be considered as having a null value (depending on the query).

Conclusion

In MongoDB, the null data type helps you to represent missing values or fields that shouldn’t have a defined value. By setting a field to null, you can preserve the structure of your documents and improve the readability of your database design.