Big Data – Exercises

Fall 2019 – Week 10 – ETH Zurich

Introduction
This exercise will cover document stores. As a representative of document stores, MongoDB was chosen for the
practical exercises. Instructions are provided to install it on the Azure Portal.

1. Document stores
A record in a document store is a document . Document encoding schemes include XML, YAML, JSON, and BSON, as
well as binary forms like PDF and Microsoft Office documents (MS Word, Excel, and so on). MongoDB documents are
similar to JSON objects. Documents are composed of field-value pairs and have the following structure:

The values of fields may include other documents, arrays, and arrays of documents. Data in MongoDB has a flexible
schema in the same collection. All documents do not need to have the same set of fields or structure, and common
fields in a collection's documents may hold different types of data.

Questions
1. What are advantages of document stores over relational databases?
2. Can the data in document stores be normalized?
3. How does denormalization affect performance?
4. How does a large number of small documents affect performance?
5. What makes document stores different from key-value stores?

2. Data models in document stores

Create a mapping between the following data models and MongoDB documents. Data models may be chosen twice.

1. One-to-one relationship with embedded documents

2. One-to-one relationship with normalized data model
3. One-to-many relationship with embedded documents
4. One-to-many relationship with normalized documents (at least in 1NF)
5. One-to-many relationship with document references

a.

{
name: "O'Reilly Media",
founded: 1980,
location: "CA",
books: [12346789, 234567890, ...]
}
 {
_id: 123456789,
title: "MongoDB: The Definitive Guide",
author: [ "Kristina Chodorow", "Mike Dirolf" ],
published_date: ISODate("2010-09-24"),
pages: 216,
language: "English"
}

{
_id: 234567890,
title: "50 Tips and Tricks for MongoDB Developer",
author: "Kristina Chodorow",
published_date: ISODate("2011-05-06"),
pages: 68,
language: "English"
}

b.

{
_id: "joe",
name: "Joe Bookreader"
}

{
patron_id: "joe",
street: "123 Fake Street",
city: "Faketon",
state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
}

c.

{
_id: "joe",
name: "Joe Bookreader"
}

{
patron_id: "joe",
street: "123 Fake Street",
city: "Faketon",
state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
}

{
patron_id: "joe",
street: "1 Some Other Street",
city: "Boston",
state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
}

d.

{
_id: "joe",
name: "Joe Bookreader",
address: {
street: "123 Fake Street",
city: "Faketon",
state: "MA",
 state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
}
}

e.

{
_id: "oreilly",
name: "O'Reilly Media",
founded: 1980,
location: "CA"
}

{
_id: 123456789,
title: "MongoDB: The Definitive Guide",
author: [ "Kristina Chodorow", "Mike Dirolf" ],
published_date: ISODate("2010-09-24"),
pages: 216,
language: "English",
publisher_id: "oreilly"
}

{
_id: 234567890,
title: "50 Tips and Tricks for MongoDB Developer",
author: "Kristina Chodorow",
published_date: ISODate("2011-05-06"),
pages: 68,
language: "English",
publisher_id: "oreilly"
}

f.

{
_id: "joe",
name: "Joe Bookreader",
addresses: [
{
street: "123 Fake Street",
city: "Faketon",
state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
},
{
street: "1 Some Other Street",
city: "Boston",
state: "MA",
zip: "12345"
}
]
}

3. MongoDB

3.1 Install MongoDB

MongoDB is an open-source document database. The next step is to install it on an Azure VM that uses Ubuntu.

Setup an Azure VM

1. Click on Create a Resource, then in the search box type Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS and then click Create.
2. In the next page, choose your subscription, a resource group and the virtual machine name.
2. In the next page, choose your subscription, a resource group and the virtual machine name.
3. In the Administration account section choose Password and set up your username/password.
4. Finally in the Inbound port rules select Allow selected ports and from the dropdown list choose SSH (22).
Press Next.
5. In the Disks and Networking tabs press Next without changing anything.
6. In the Management tab set Boot diagnostics to Off.
7. Press Next until you reach the Review+Create tab. If you have done everything correctly, you can press
Create. Otherwise, fix the errors. Wait for your VM to spawn (< 3 minutes).
8. In order to connect to your Virtual Machine, find it in the dashboard, click on it and then on theConnect button.
In the pop-up modal copy the Login using VM Account and connect using SSH from a terminal.

Install MongoDB on the VM

When you have connected on the VM type type the following commands:

1. sudo apt update

2. sudo apt install -y mongodb
3. Check that MongoDB is running: sudo systemctl status mongodb and mongo --eval 'db.runCommand({
connectionStatus: 1 })'

3.2 Import the dataset

When you have connected on the VM run

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mongodb/docs-assets/primer-dataset/primer-dataset.json

to retrieve the data. Use mongoimport to insert the documents into the restaurants collection in the test database .
If the collection already exists in the test database, the operation will drop the restaurants collection first.

mongoimport --db test --collection restaurants --drop --file ./primer-dataset.json

3.3 Mongo shell

The mongo shell is an interactive JavaScript interface to MongoDB. You can use the mongo shell to query and update
data as well as to perform administrative operations.

To start mongo use:

mongo --shell

In the mongo shell connected to a running MongoDB instance, switch to the test database.

use test

Try to insert a document into the restaurants collection. In addition, you can see the structure of documents the in
the collection.

db.restaurants.insert(
{
"address" : {
"street" : "2 Avenue",
"zipcode" : "10075",
"building" : "1480",
"coord" : [ -73.9557413, 40.7720266 ]
},
"borough" : "Manhattan",
"cuisine" : "Italian",
"grades" : [
{
"date" : ISODate("2014-10-01T00:00:00Z"),
"grade" : "A",
"score" : 11
},
{
"date" : ISODate("2014-01-16T00:00:00Z"),
"grade" : "A",
"score" : 17
}
],
 ],
"name" : "Vella",
"restaurant_id" : "41704620"
}
)

Query all documents in a collection:

db.restaurants.find()

Query one document in a collection:

db.restaurants.findOne()

To format the printed result, you can add .pretty() to the operation, as in the following:

db.restaurants.find().limit(1).pretty()

Query Documents
For the db.collection.find() method, you can specify the following optional fields:

a query filter to specify which documents to return,

a query projection to specifies which fields from the matching documents to return (the projection limits the
amount of data that MongoDB returns to the client over the network),
optionally, a cursor modifier to impose limits, skips, and sort orders.

3.4 Questions
Write queries in MongoDB that return the following:

1. All restaurants in borough (a town) "Brooklyn" and cuisine (a style of cooking) "Hamburgers".
2. The number of restaurants in the borough "Brooklyn" and cuisine "Hamburgers".
3. All restaurants with zipcode 11225.
4. Names of restaurants with zipcode 11225 that have at least one grade "C".
5. Names of restaurants with zipcode 11225 that have as first grade "C" and as second grade "A".
6. Names and streets of restaurants that don't have an "A" grade.
7. All restaurants for which at least one rating has a grade C and a score greater than 50.
8. All restaurants with a grade C or a score greater than 50.
9. A table with zipcode and number of restaurants that are in the borough "Queens" and have "Brazilian" cuisine.

You can read more about MongoDB here:

https://docs.mongodb.com/getting-started/shell/query/

https://docs.mongodb.com/getting-started/shell/aggregation/

https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/aggregation/

4. Indexing in MongoDB
Indexes support the efficient resolution of queries. Without indexes, MongoDB must scan every document of a
collection to select those documents that match the query statement. Scans can be highly inefficient and require
MongoDB to process a large volume of data.

Indexes are special data structures that store a small portion of the data set in an easy-to-traverse form. The index
stores the value of a specific field or set of fields, ordered by the value of the field as specified in the index.
MongoDB supports indexes that contain either a single field or multiple fields depending on the operations that this
index type supports.

By default, MongoDB creates the _id index, which is an ascending unique index on the _id field, for all collections
when the collection is created. You cannot remove the index on the _id field.

Managing indexes in MongoDB

An explain operator provides information on the query plan. It returns a document that describes the process and
indexes used to return the query. This may provide useful insight when attempting to optimize a query.

db.restaurants.find({"borough" : "Brooklyn").explain()

In the mongo shell, you can create an index by calling the createIndex() method.

db.restaurants.createIndex( { borough : 1 })

Now, you retrieve a new query plan for indexed data.

db.restaurants.find({"borough" : "Brooklyn").explain()

The value of the field in the index specification describes the kind of index for that field. For example, a value of 1
specifies an index that orders items in ascending order. A value of -1 specifies an index that orders items in
descending order.

To remove all indexes, you can use db.collection.dropIndexes() . To remove a specific index you can use
db.collection.dropIndex() , such as db.restaurants.dropIndex({ borough : 1 }) .

Questions
1. Write an index that will speed up the following query: db.restaurants.find({"borough" : "Brooklyn"})
2. We have an index on address field as follows:

db.restaurants.createIndex( { address : -1 })

Will the query

db.restaurants.find({"address.zipcode" : "11225" })

use that index?

3. Write a command for creating an index on the zipcode field.
4. Let us have the compound index:

db.restaurants.createIndex( { "borough": 1, "cuisine": -1 } )

Which of the following queries use the index above?

A. db.restaurants.find({"borough" : "Brooklyn")
B. db.restaurants.find({"cuisine" : "Hamburgers")
C. db.restaurants.find({"borough" : "Brooklyn", "cuisine" : "Hamburgers" })
D. db.restaurants.find().sort( {borough: -1} )
E. db.restaurants.find().sort( {borough: 1, cuisine: 1 } )
F. db.restaurants.find().sort( {borough: -1, cuisine: 1 } )
G. db.restaurants.find().sort( {cuisine: 1, borough: -1 } )
5. Answer Question 4, but for the following index:

db.restaurants.createIndex( { "borough": 1, "cuisine": -1, "name" : -1} )

6. Is it possible to create the index below? Why?/Why not?

db.restaurants.createIndex( { "address.coord": 1, "grades": -1} )

7. Write an index to speed up the following query:

db.restaurants.find({"grades.grade" : { $ne : "A"} } , {"name" : 1 , "address.street": 1})

8. Write an index to speed up the following query:

db.restaurants.find({"grades.score" : {$gt : 50} , "grades.grade" : "C"})

9. What are the differences between two index strategies below

A. db.restaurants.createIndex( { "borough": 1, "cuisine": -1} )
 A. db.restaurants.createIndex( { "borough": 1, "cuisine": -1} )
B. db.restaurants.createIndex( { "borough": 1} )
db.restaurants.createIndex( { "cuisine": -1} )
10. How are sparse indexes different from normal ones?
11. How hashed indexes are used in MongoDB?

Important: Delete all the resources that have been associated

with your VM after your have reached this point of the tutorial.
The corresponding resources are your VM, Disks, Network
interface, Virtual Network, Public IP address and Network
security group. Delete them in the order mentioned here.

5. SQL to MongoDB Mapping

Create a one-to-one mapping between the following SQL and MongoDB queries.

1.

INSERT INTO users(user_id, age, status)

VALUES ("bcd001", 45, "A")

2.

SELECT * FROM users

3.

SELECT user_id, status FROM users

4.

SELECT * FROM users

WHERE age > 25 AND age <= 50

5.

SELECT * FROM users

WHERE status = "A" OR age = 50

6.

CREATE TABLE users (

id MEDIUMINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
user_id Varchar(30),
age Number,
status char(1),
PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

7.

SELECT COUNT(user_id)
FROM users

a.

db.users.find(
{ age: { $gt: 25, $lte: 50 } }
)

b.

db.users.find(
{ },
{ user_id: 1, status: 1, _id: 0 }
 { user_id: 1, status: 1, _id: 0 }
)

c.

db.createCollection( "users")

d.

db.users.insert(
{ user_id: "bcd001", age: 45, status: "A" }
)

e.

db.users.count( { user_id: { $exists: true}})

f.

db.users.find(
{ $or: [ { status: "A" } ,
{ age: 50 } ] }
)

g.

db.users.find()

6. True or False
Say if the following statements are true or false.

1. In document stores, you must determine and declare a table's schema before inserting data.
2. Documents stores are not subject to data modeling and support only one denormalized data model.
3. Different relationships between data can be represented by references and embedded documents.
4. MongoDB provides the capability to validate documents during updates and insertions.
5. There are no joins in MongoDB.

7. Choose the right technology

In the following situations state which of the technologies (either aDocument Store or a Relational Database) would
be more suitable.

1. You are mostly working with semistructured or unstructured data.

2. Your application writes hundreds of records every few seconds but does not update them very often.
3. You have a well defined schema with clear constraints.
4. You want the queries written for your DB to be easily readable.
5. Your schema has a lot of relations.
6. Your applications frequent updates and modifies large volume of records.

8. Simple query comparison

Assume you have an SQL database/MongoDB database that has a table/collection called users . You want to query
the users that have registered in the last 24 hours. Assume that you have an attribute/collection in your database
that is called signup_time . Write the corresponding queries in SQL and MongoDB. Which one you do think that is
more readable?