Question

So i need to do a find by id or email. The input can be an objectId as a hex string or a valid email.

now a simple

User.find({'$or': [{email: req.body.user}, {_id: req.body.user}]}, function(err, user){})

is throwing an error when searching via email, since the email fails to return a valid objectId.

How do i get over this? I know one possible way is to first detect if the input is an email, and then query it like that, but any better method?

Answer 1

Actually, that’s the best method. In your application first detect what kind of input do you have. If it’s an ObjectId – query by _id. If it’s email – query by email.