Developers’ Dilemma: Why Use MongoDB Instead of Other Databases

Focus on making databases for a startup business? Which one do you rely on? The database management market continues to get crowded with new options and each one can look better than the last developers’ dilemma. To keep one foot ahead of the competition and keep clients happy, you’ll need to stay updated with the current trends and most celebrated software. One of the new database programs out there is MongoDB.

But why use MongoDB instead of others?

Don’t worry, we’re here to explain why it tops the charts and why you need to start using it. In this guide, you’ll learn the practical uses of MongoDB.

Read on and find out more:

What Is MongoDB?

MongoDB is an open-source database management system. It’s a document-oriented database model that helps support different data forms. It’s one of the many nonrelational database solutions that rose up in the mid-2000s.

It’s used for big data applications as well as other processing jobs that involve data that won’t fit in a relational model due to its rigidness. MongoDB’s architecture uses collections and documents instead of tables and rows like relational databases.

How Does MongoDB Work?

A MongoDB record is a document. It’s a type of data structure made up of field and value pairs, similar to JavaScript Object Notation objects. The main difference is that the former uses a variant called Binary JSON (BSON), allowing it to take in other data types.

The document fields are comparable to a relational database column. The values they can store can have a wide selection of data types, which includes:

  • Other documents
  • Arrays
  • Arrays of documents

Documents are the most basic data unit in MongoDB. It needs to have a primary key as its unique identifier. These can become a part of a collection, which function like a relational database table.

Collections can have any data type, but it comes with a restriction. You can’t spread the data across various databases.

The Mongo Shell

This is an interactive JavaScript interface to MongoDB. This allows you to query and update your data while doing other administrative functions. It’s a standard part of MongoDB’s open-source distributions.

Once installed, users can connect their mongo shell to any running instances of MongoDB.

BSON Document Storage and Data Interchange Format

This gives a binary representation of all JSON-like documents for MongoDB. It uses automatic sharding to allow MongoDB data distribution across different systems even when they’re part of a collection. This helps with horizontal scalability, allowing you to keep up with increasing data volumes and throughput requirements.

Why Use MongoDB?

Now we know what it is and how it works but why use MongoDB? What makes it stand out?

As a NoSQL database, you have lots of incentives to learn how to use MongoDB. The following benefits are what built the foundation of this DBMS’s worldwide popularity:

  1. Schema-less Database

MongoDB’s database is more flexible compared to the traditional database systems. With this, you won’t need to do a lot to set it up. This also means that you’ll have less friction with object-oriented programming (OOP).

When you need to save objects, you can use JSON to serialize it. After that, you can send it to MongoDB for storing.

  1. Capped Collections and Indexing

MongoDB has capped collection support, meaning that it has a fixed size of collections within it. It helps in maintaining the insertion order. If it reaches the limit, the collection will start behaving like a circular queue.

To improve database search performance, MongoDB allows you to make indexes. You can index any field within the MongoDB document regardless of whether it’s primary or secondary. With this, you can resolve queries faster, and more efficiently.

  1. File Storage and Replication

You can use MongoDB as a file storage system. This helps in avoiding load imbalance and make data replication easier. It’s possible to perform this function due to the Grid File System, and it’s included in the drivers that store files.

MongoDB can help with replication by distributing data across various machines. Your system can have a single node with a lot of secondary nodes in it, as long as the replica set is more than one. The set functions like a master-slave.

The master can do read and write functions. As for the slaves, they copy data from a master node as a backup. As a result, you can only do the read operation.

  1. Load Balancing

Do you need to process a large set of data? If so, you can use MongoDB to distribute the traffic across various machines. It’s possible due to the database system’s load balancing feature.

It will help you continue to work even when one of your machines stopped working for any reason. It’s possible since the other nodes will keep continuing the work. With that, the process won’t need to stop.

  1. Flexibility and Speed

Since MongoDB doesn’t need unified data structures across all used objects, using this system is easier. Couple that with the dynamic schema, even beginners can use MongoDB with little training.

The best part is that the system can process data easily. It’s fast, as long as the data you’re processing is in document format. Its speed will increase as soon as it starts handling a larger amount of unstructured data within a few seconds.

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  1. Ad Hoc Queries

MongoDB can support range queries, as well as regular expressions and other search types. It includes queries like user-based JavaScript function. It also has the means of returning certain fields from documents.

Ad Hoc queries are possible using two methods: indexing BSON documents or using a unique query language.

Learn MongoDB Today!

If you’re asking, “Why use MongoDB?”, these are some of the more compelling benefits. If you’re still on the fence whether this database system is worth your time, take the time and read this guide in-depth. Don’t hesitate and try it out—you’ll see how easy it is to use.

Did you find this guide informative and compelling? If so, we encourage you to read more of our guides today. We have a lot of high-quality posts, allowing you to start learning the newest tips and tricks.