Construct search queries

You can construct Atlas Search queries with the $search aggregation pipeline stage.

MongoDB aggregation pipelines are multi-stage ‘assembly lines’ that reshape data and perform calculations. Pipelines can consist of one or more aggregation stages, performing different operations like match, group, sort, and output. For an exhaustive list of all available stages visit [Aggregation Pipeline Stages](https://mongodb.com/docs/manual/reference/operator/aggregation-pipeline/#std-label-aggregation-pipeline-operator-reference?utm_campaign=devrel&utm_source=workshop&utm_medium=cta&utm_content=soccer_workshop&utm_term=stanimira.vlaeva).

In this section, we'll build an aggregation pipeline with the $search stage which performs full-text search using an Atlas Search index.

In this section, you'll use the text operator which performs a textual analysis search.

Aggregations in the Atlas UI

1. Navigate to the Collections tab of your database deployment.

   

2. Navigate to the Aggregation tab from the navbar under your collection details.

   

3. Click the Add Stage button and type $search in the select input.

   

4. Add the following code for the $search stage.

   {
       index: "fulltextsearch",
       text: {
           query: "harry potter",
           path: "title"
       }
   }

   The stage uses the "fulltextsearch" index. You don't need to explicitly define the index if it's "default" but you can keep it for clarity.

   The text operator will search for "harry potter" in the title field. You should see a collection of documents returned on the right.

5. Click the Add Stage button, scroll down, and select $project for Stage 2.

   

6. Add the following implementation for the $project stage to filter the returned fields.

   {
       title: 1,
       year: 1,
       "imdb.rating": 1,
       fullplot: 1,
       poster: 1,
       released: 1,
       genres: 1
   }
   info

   This is not an exact match search but a textual analyzed search. The full text in the title field is “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. If instead of an aggregation pipeline and $search, you use collection.find({ title: "harry potter" }), you won't get this document in the results.