# Querying

## Distributing queries to secondaries

All queries (reads and writes) are only sent to the primary member of a replica set by default. This is however easily configurable by using the Read Preferences which allow you to set some generic read preferences (such as allowing secondary reads of the nearest server), and also provide ways to specifically target a server in a specific country, datacenter, or even hardware, by the use of replica set tag sets.

Read Preferences can be configured at "every level"

- As a query parameter, or option, to `MongoClient::__construct`
- Specifically by calling `MongoClient::setReadPreference`
- At the Database level with `MongoDB::setReadPreference`
- At the Collection level with `MongoCollection::setReadPreference`

Each class inherits the Read Preference setting from the class above it, so if you do:

### Inheriting ReadPreferences from the Database level down to the Cursor

    <?php
    $db->setReadPreference(MongoClient::RP_SECONDARY_PREFERRED);
    $c = $db->myCollection;

    $cursor = $c->find();
    ?>

then the query will be executed against a secondary (the collection inherited `MongoClient::RP_SECONDARY_PREFERRED` from the database and the cursor inherited it from the collection).

## How secondaries are chosen

Each instance of `MongoClient` chooses its own secondary using the available secondary with the lowest ping time. So, if we had a PHP client in Europe and one in Australia and we had one secondary in each of these data centers, we could do:

    <?php
    $options = array("replicaSet" => "setName", "readPreference" => MongoClient::RP_SECONDARY_PREFERRED);

    // on the Australian client
    $m = new MongoClient("mongodb://primary,australianhost.secondary,europeanhost.secondary", $options);
    $cursor = $m->foo->bar->find();
    $cursor->getNext();
    echo "Reading from: ", $cursor->info()["server"], "\n";

    // on the European client
    $m = new MongoClient("mongodb://primary,australianhost.secondary,europeanhost.secondary", $options);
    $cursor = $m->foo->bar->find();
    $cursor->getNext();
    echo "Reading from: ", $cursor->info()["server"], "\n";
    ?>

&example.outputs.similar;

    Reading from: australianHost
    Reading from: europeanHost

Note that we have to do a query before a secondary is chosen: secondaries are chosen lazily by the driver, and for each query separately.

You can see what the driver thinks is the current status of the set members by running `MongoClient::getHosts` or `MongoClient::getConnections`.

If no secondary is readable, the driver will send reads to the primary as we specified `MongoClient::RP_SECONDARY_PREFERRED` which will fallback to execute a query on a primary if no secondaries are available. A server is considered readable if its state is 2 (SECONDARY) and its health is 1. You can check this with `MongoClient::getHosts` and `MongoClient::getConnections`.

## Random notes

Writes are always sent to the primary—and by default all reads are sent to the primary too.

## Querying by _id

Every object inserted is automatically assigned a unique `_id` field, which is often a useful field to use in queries. This works similarly to "get last insert ID" functionality, except that the `_id` is chosen by the client.

Suppose that we wish to find the document we just inserted. Inserting adds an `_id` field to the document, so we can query by that:

    <?php
    $person = array("name" => "joe");

    $people->insert($person);

    // now $joe has an _id field
    $joe = $people->findOne(array("_id" => $person['_id']));
    ?>

Unless the user has specified otherwise, the `_id` field is a `MongoId`. The most common mistake is attempting to use a string to match a `MongoId`. Keep in mind that these are two different datatypes, and will not match each other in the same way that the string "array()" is not the same as an empty array. For example:

    <?php
    $person = array("name" => "joe");

    $people->insert($person);

    // convert the _id to a string
    $pid = $person['_id'] . "";

    // FAILS - $pid is a string, not a MongoId
    $joe = $people->findOne(array("_id" => $pid));
    ?>

## Arrays

Arrays are special in a couple ways. First, there are two types that MongoDB uses: "normal" arrays and associative arrays. Associative arrays can have any mix of key types and values. "Normal" arrays are defined as arrays with ascending numeric indexes starting at 0 and increasing by one for each element. These are, typically, just your usual PHP array.

For instance, if you want to save a list of awards in a document, you could say:

    <?php

    $collection->save(array("awards" => array("gold", "silver", "bronze")));

    ?>

Queries can reach into arrays to search for elements. Suppose that we wish to find all documents with an array element of a given value. For example, documents with a "gold" award, such as:

    { "_id" : ObjectId("4b06c282edb87a281e09dad9"), "awards" : ["gold", "silver", "bronze"]}

This can be done with a simple query, ignoring the fact that "awards" is an array:

    <?php

      $cursor = $collection->find(array("awards" => "gold"));

    ?>

Suppose we are querying for a more complex object, if each element of the array were an object itself, such as:

    {
         "_id" : ObjectId("4b06c282edb87a281e09dad9"),
         "awards" :
         [
            {
                "first place" : "gold"
            },
            {
                "second place" : "silver"
            },
            {
                "third place" :  "bronze"
            }
         ]
    }

Still ignoring that this is an array, we can use dot notation to query the subobject:

    <?php

    $cursor = $collection->find(array("awards.first place" => "gold"));

    ?>

Notice that it doesn't matter that there is a space in the field name (although it may be best not to use spaces, just to make things more readable).

You can also use an array to query for a number of possible values. For instance, if we were looking for documents "gold" or "copper", we could do:

    <?php

    $cursor = $collection->find(array("awards" => array('$in' => array("gold", "copper"))));

    ?>

&reftitle.changelog;

&Version; | &Description;
1.3.0 | Introduced the Read Preferences framework to allow more fine grained control over secondary reads.
1.3.0 | Deprecated `slaveOkay` usage, the alternative is Read Preferences.
1.1.0 | Introduced the possiblity of routing reads to secondaries of replica set members using `Mongo::setSlaveOkay`