What is the use of mongoose methods and statics?

Question

Database logic should be encapsulated within the data model. Mongoose provides 2 ways of doing this, methods and statics. Methods adds an instance method to documents whereas Statics adds static “class” methods to the Models itself.

Given the example Animal Model below:

var AnimalSchema = mongoose.Schema({
  name: String,
  type: String,
  hasTail: Boolean
});

module.exports = mongoose.model('Animal', AnimalSchema);

We could add a method to find similar types of animal, and a static method to find all animals with tails:

AnimalSchema.methods.findByType = function (cb) {
  return this.model('Animal').find({ type: this.type }, cb);
};

AnimalSchema.statics.findAnimalsWithATail = function (cb) {
  Animal.find({ hasTail: true }, cb);
};

Here’s the full model with example usage for methods and statics:

var AnimalSchema = mongoose.Schema({
  name: String,
  type: String,
  hasTail: Boolean
});

AnimalSchema.methods.findByType = function (cb) {
  return this.model('Animal').find({ type: this.type }, cb);
};

AnimalSchema.statics.findAnimalsWithATail = function (cb) {
  Animal.find({ hasTail: true }, cb);
};

module.exports = mongoose.model('Animal', AnimalSchema);

// example usage:

var dog = new Animal({
  name: 'Snoopy',
  type: 'dog',
  hasTail: true
});

dog.findByType(function (err, dogs) {
  console.log(dogs);
});

Animal.findAnimalsWithATail(function (animals) {
  console.log(animals);
});

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