PHP and MongoDB - The Definitive Guide to MongoDB - page 99

Returning a Single Document
Listing a single document is easy: simply executing the findOne() function without any parameters specified will grab
the first document it finds in the collection. The findOne function stores the returned information in an array and
leaves it for you to print it out again, as in this example:
// Connect to the database
$c = new MongoClient();
// Select the collection 'people' from the database 'contacts'
$collection = $c->contacts->people;
// Find the very first document within the collection, and print it out
// using print_r
print_r($collection->findOne());
As noted previously, it's easy to list a single document in a collection: all you will need to do is define the
findOne() function itself. Naturally, you can use the findOne() function with additional filters. For instance, if you
know the last name of a person you're looking for, you can specify it as an option in the findOne() function:
// Connect to the database
$c = new MongoClient();
// Select the collection 'people' from the database 'contacts'
$collection = $c->contacts->people;
// Define the last name of the person in the $lastname variable
$lastname = array("Last Name" => "Moran");
// Find the very first person in the collection with the last name "Moran"
print_r($collection->findOne($lastname));
Of course, many more options exist for filtering the data; you'll learn more about these additional options later in
this chapter. Let's begin by looking at some sample output returned by using the print_r() command (the example
adds a few line breaks for the sake of making the code easier to read):
Array (
[_id] => MongoId Object ( )
[First Name] => Philip
[Last Name] => Moran
[Address] => Array (
[Street] => 681 Hinkle Lake Road
[Place] => Newton
[Postal Code] => MA 02160
[Country] => USA
)
[E-Mail] => Array (
[0] => [e-mail]
[1] => [e-mail]
[2] => [e-mail]
[3] => [e-mail]
[4] => [e-mail]
[5] => [e-mail]