Find random document in MongoDB collection.

find-and-refresh-rand.js

// Install packages:
//   npm install mongodb async
// Add index in mongo:
//   db.ensureIndex('mycollection', { rand: 1 })

var mongodb = require('mongodb')
var async = require('async')

// Find n random documents by using "rand" field.
function findAndRefreshRand (collection, n, fields, done) {
  var result = []
  var rand = Math.random()

  // Append documents to the result based on criteria and options, if options.limit is 0 skip the call.
  var appender = function (criteria, options, done) {
    return function (done) {
      if (options.limit > 0) {
        collection.find(criteria, fields, options).toArray(
          function (err, docs) {
            if (!err && Array.isArray(docs)) {
              Array.prototype.push.apply(result, docs)
            }
            done(err)
          }
        )
      } else {
        async.nextTick(done)
      }
    }
  }

  async.series([

    // Fetch docs with unitialized .rand.
    // NOTE: You can comment out this step if all docs have initialized .rand = Math.random()
    appender({ rand: { $exists: false } }, { limit: n - result.length }),

    // Fetch on one side of random number.
    appender({ rand: { $gte: rand } }, { sort: { rand: 1 }, limit: n - result.length }),

    // Continue fetch on the other side.
    appender({ rand: { $lt: rand } }, { sort: { rand: -1 }, limit: n - result.length }),

    // Refresh fetched docs, if any.
    function (done) {
      if (result.length > 0) {
        var batch = collection.initializeUnorderedBulkOp({ w: 0 })
        for (var i = 0; i < result.length; ++i) {
          batch.find({ _id: result[i]._id }).updateOne({ rand: Math.random() })
        }
        batch.execute(done)
      } else {
        async.nextTick(done)
      }
    }

  ], function (err) {
    done(err, result)
  })
}

// Example usage
mongodb.MongoClient.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/core-development', function (err, db) {
  if (!err) {
    findAndRefreshRand(db.collection('profiles'), 1024, { _id: true, rand: true }, function (err, result) {
      if (!err) {
        console.log(result)
      } else {
        console.error(err)
      }
      db.close()
    })
  } else {
    console.error(err)
  }
})