mongoose get _id field of a found document-CodePudding

i'm trying to get the _id field of specific employee by req.body.name :

const requestVacation = async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const employee = await Employee.find({ nameAR: req.body.name }).select('_id')

    const vacation = new Vacation({
      employeeId: employee._id,
      type: req.body.type,
      startDate: req.body.startDate,
      endDate: req.body.endDate,
      numberOfHours: req.body.numberOfHours,
    });
    await vacation.save();
    res.status(200).json("vacation has been requested successfully");

  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err);
    res.status(404).json(err);
  }
};

the employee variable will return this :


[ { _id: new ObjectId("630ba65261c73f3c8afc5c8c") } ]

but i only want the _id value to save it as employeeId in vacation collection, so how can i get the _id value ?

i tried :

employee._id

but it returns undefined

i also tried :

    const employee = await Employee.find({ nameAR: req.body.name }, { _id: 1 });

it returns the same result, how to get the _id value out of it

CodePudding user response：

You are returning an array from the DB with find. You can access the _id with employee[0]._id or use findOne, and it will return an object to be accessed with employee._id