A collection in MongoDB is the same as a table in SQL databases.
Creating a Collection
To create a collection in MongoDB, use database object and specify the name of the collection you want to create.
MongoDB will create the collection if it does not exist.
Example
Create a collection called "customers":
import pymongo
myclient = pymongo.MongoClient("mongodb://localhost:27017/")
mydb = myclient["mydatabase"]
mycol = mydb["customers"]Important: In MongoDB, a collection is not created until it gets content!
MongoDB waits until you have inserted a document before it actually creates the collection.
Check if Collection Exists
Remember
In MongoDB, a collection is not created until it gets content, so if this is your first time creating a collection, you should complete the next chapter (create document) before you check if the collection exists!
You can check if a collection exist in a database by listing all collections:
Example
Return a list of all collections in your database:
print(mydb.list_collection_names())Or you can check a specific collection by name:
Example
Check if the "customers" collection exists:
collist = mydb.list_collection_names()
if "customers" in collist:
print("The collection exists.")