Here’s a query that takes forever for a podcast database. I want to know the number of podcasts that start with the letter A:
// hangs and eventually times out
db.podcasts.find({'name': {'$regex': /^A/i}}.count()But, if I limit the fields returned, this returns more quickly:
// returns in 2.47s
db.podcasts.find({'name': {'$regex': /^A/i}}, {}).count()Counting large collections is unfortunately slow, but sometimes necessary for things like pagination and research. I hope this helps!
