Create Collection

What is a Collection in MongoDB?

A collection is like a table in SQL, but more flexible. It holds documents (which are like rows), and all documents are stored in BSON format (Binary JSON).

Example: In a school database, you might have collections like:

• students
• teachers
• classes

✅ A collection is a group of related documents.

Analogy

Concept	Relational DB	MongoDB	Analogy
Top	Database	Database	A folder
Middle	Table	Collection	A spreadsheet inside the folder
Bottom	Row	Document	A single record (e.g., one student)

Creating Collection

Using MongoDB Shell

// Switch to the database - bookstore
use bookstore

// Create a collection (collections are created automatically when you insert data)
db.createCollection("books")

View all collection in database

// View collections in current database
show collections

Using MongoDB Compass

1. Open MongoDB Compass
2. Connect to your MongoDB instance
3. Select the database bookstore
4. Enter collection name: books
5. Click "Create Database"