MongoDB Java Driver: Multiple Date query

Question

I am trying to create a query using MongoDB Java Driver as part of an aggregation command. Currently I allow a date range or an array of specific dates as an argument. eg

<date>
    <start>2013-12-10 00:00:00.000</start>
    <end>2013-12-12 23:59:59.999</end>
</date>

or

<date>
    <specificDates>2013-12-10 00:00:00.000,2013-12-13 00:00:00.000</specificDates>
</date>

The date range query works fine, I parse and convert the xml into a DBObject that produces the following query in mongo;

{ "$match" : { "d" : { "$gte" : { "$date" : "2013-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"} , "$lt" : { "$date" : "2013-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"}}}}

For the specificDates I want to return only results that occur between 00:00:00.000 on the given day and 00:00:00.000 of the next day. From my pretty basic knowledge of mongo querys i had hoped to do a similar $match as the date range, but have it use $in on an array of date ranges similar to the following;

{ "$match" : { "d" : { "$in" : [ { "$gte" : { "$date" : "2013-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"} , "$lt" : { "$date" : "2013-10-02T00:00:00.000Z"}} , { "$gte" : { "$date" : "2013-10-03T00:00:00.000Z"} , "$lt" : { "$date" : "2013-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"}}]}}}

The above query fails to return any results. I have noticed that $in is not listed in the mongodb manual under the Mongo Aggregation Framework section, but its not throwing any kind of errors that I would have expected for an unsupported operation.

I think the issue may come from this line in the MongoDB Manual;

If the field holds an array, then the $in operator selects the documents whose field holds an array that contains at least one element that matches a value in the specified array (eg , , etc.)

In my collection the date isn't stored in an array, I suppose I could store it in the collections in an single element array? (Actually, decided to try this quickly before I posted, no documents returned when the date entry in the document is stored in a single element array)

Document entry example

{ "_id" : ObjectId("52aea5b0065991de1a56d5b0"), "d" : ISODate("2013-12-15T00:00:11.088Z"), "t" : 1501824, "s" : 0, "e" : 601, "tld" : "uk", "y" : "domain:check", "n" : "removed.co.uk" }

Is anyone able to give me some advice as to how I should do this query? Thank you.

EDIT: I left the Java tag here in case anyone needs my DBObject creation code, though it shouldn't be necessary as the queries posted have been generated by my build.

EDIT2: So as Alan Spencer pointed out I should be using $or rather than $in, a working $or function is below (ignore the different formatting like the use of ISODate(), its just copy pasted from the mongo shell rather than getting output from my program)

{ $match : { $or : [ { d : { $gte : ISODate("2013-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"), $lt : ISODate("2013-10-02T00:00:00.000Z") } }, { d : { $gte : ISODate("2013-10-03T00:00:00.000Z"), $lt : ISODate("2013-10-04T00:00:00.000Z") } } ] } }

Answer 1

I think you're inverting the meaning of the $in.

$in is used to match exactly against a list of possible values, like

{"color":{"$in": ["red","green","blue"]}}

For your use case, you are trying to match if it satisfies the first or second, etc. So, you can use $or - http://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/operator/query/or/

{ "$match" : { "d" : { "$or" : [ { "$gte" : { "$date" : "2013-10-01T00:00:00.000Z"} , "$lt" : { "$date" : "2013-10-02T00:00:00.000Z"}} , { "$gte" : { "$date" : "2013-10-03T00:00:00.000Z"} , "$lt" : { "$date" : "2013-10-04T00:00:00.000Z"}}]}}}