Question

collection.find({description : data.story.description}, function(err, cursor){
  cursor.each(function(err, item){
    if(item != null){
      console.log("duplicate found\n"+util.inspect(item));
    }
  })
})

Is it possible to get the size of the cursor, without using a counter in the each loop?

Answer 1

If you are checking for duplicates, you may wish to try the count() method attached to collection. E.g.:

collection.count({description: data.story.description}, function(err, count) {
  if (count > 1) console.log("Duplicates found!");
});

Cursor.toArray() is just using cursor.each() on the back end. My example assumes you are checking post-insert(), but you could check pre- with (count > 0) and call insert() if (count == 0).