Explain the Concept of BSON in MongoDB
Last Updated :
15 May, 2024
BSON or B JSON is the primary data representation format used in MongoDB. BSON (Binary JavaScript Object Notation) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) are both data interchange formats used in web-based applications, but they serve different purposes. BSON is an extension of JSON with additional features tailored for efficient data storage and transmission.
BSON Specifications and Features
BSON is a binary-encoded serialization of JSON documents that adds support for additional data types beyond what JSON offers. It includes specifications for various data types such as int32, int64, double, decimal128, date, objectId, and more. These specifications enable BSON to handle complex data structures efficiently.
Comparison between BSON vs JSON
| Feature | BSON | JSON |
|---|
| Encoding | Binary | Plain text |
| Data Types | Supports additional data types like Date, Binary, ObjectId, Regular Expression | Standard data types (string, number, boolean, array, object, null) |
| Size | Typically smaller due to binary encoding | Larger due to plain text representation |
| Efficiency | More efficient for storage and transmission due to binary encoding | Less efficient compared to BSON |
| Usage | Mainly used as the internal storage format for MongoDB | Commonly used for data interchange between systems and in web APIs |
| Human Readability | Less human-readable due to binary encoding | More human-readable due to plain text representation |
| Extensions | Provides additional data types and features for MongoDB | No built-in extensions beyond standard JSON data types |
| Example | { "_id": ObjectId("60a56cf8e3e1a3175a972056"), "name": "GFG", "age": 30 } | { "_id": "60a56cf8e3e1a3175a972056", "name": "GFG", "age": 30 } |
Advantages of BSON
BSON offers several advantages over JSON:
- Lightweight and Traversable: BSON is lightweight, making it suitable for storing and transmitting large volumes of data efficiently.
- Efficiency in Storage and Scanning: BSON's design optimizations enable faster scanning and querying of data, despite slightly larger file sizes compared to JSON.
- Support for Additional Data Types: BSON introduces specialized data types like Decimal128, which are crucial for specific applications such as financial systems.
Converting JSON to BSON
Various tools and online converters are available to convert JSON data into BSON format and vice versa. This conversion is useful when interacting with databases like MongoDB, which use BSON for data storage.
Importing and Exporting BSON in MongoDB
MongoDB provides tools like mongorestore and bsondump for importing and exporting BSON files. These tools enable seamless integration of BSON data into MongoDB databases and facilitate data manipulation tasks.
Once you've installed the MongoDB database tools, you'll find importing and exporting BSON files in MongoDB to be a breeze with just a few straightforward commands. Using the mongorestore command, you can effortlessly load data either from a binary database dump generated by mongodump or from standard input into a mongod or mongos instance
To import a .bson file, run the following command on your system command line.
mongorestore -d database_name /path/file.bson
Here, database_name is the name of the database you want to import. Path denotes the absolute path of your .bson file, while file represents the BSON file’s name.
For a single collection, run the following command on your system command line.
mongorestore --drop -d database_name -c collection_name /path/file.bson
Here, coll_name define the name of collection that you want to import.
For restoring the folder then run the following command.
mongorestore -d db_name /path/
To export BSON documents, use the database tool bsondump.
To export the collection of BSON then run the following command.
bsondump collection.bson
After that you can check --Outfile using the following command.
bsondump --outFile=collection.json collection.bson
BSON Example in MongoDB
Let's consider a simple JSON document:
JavaScript
When stored in MongoDB using BSON, this document is encoded as a binary representation, ensuring efficient storage and retrieval.
\x16\x00\x00\x00 // total document size
\x02 // 0x02 = type String
hello\x00 // field name
\x06\x00\x00\x00world\x00 // field value (size of value, value, null terminator
\x00 // 0x00 = type EOO ('end of object')
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