Mongoose Regex on Virtual Field

Question

I'd like to run a regex to achieve a "LIKE" type functionality on a virtual field in my User schema.

The following statement works for all of the fields except * fullName *

var searchString = stringUtils.removeMultipleSpaces(stringUtils.stripSpecialCharacters(req.param('searchString')));
        var regex = new RegExp(searchString);
        var query = User.find().or([{ 'firstName' : { $regex: regex}}, { 'lastName': { $regex: regex }},
            { 'userName': { $regex: regex }}, { 'fullName' : {$regex: regex }}]).sort('lastName');
        query.select('firstName lastName userName fullName');
        query.exec(function(err, users) {
            res.send(users);
        });

The virtual field declaration in the mongoose schema for User

//full name
UserSchema.virtual('fullName')
    .get(function() {
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
});

What is the right approach to get the fullName field regex to work properly?

Answer 1

As you already stated (and showed us), fullName is a virtual, it's on the application layer. You cannot query it.

See also: Sorting by virtual field in mongoDB (mongoose)