NUM = 20; M = 5; t = db.xxx; function test( withIndex ){ t.drop(); // insert a bunch of items to force queries to use the index. newObject = { _id : 1, a : [ { b : { c : 1 } } ] } now = (new Date()).getTime() / 1000; for (created = now - NUM; created <= now; created++ ) { newObject['created'] = created; t.insert(newObject); newObject['_id'] ++; } // change the last M items. query = { 'created' : { '$gte' : now - M } } Z = t.find( query ).count(); if ( withIndex ){ //t.ensureIndex( { 'a.b.c' : 1, 'created' : -1 } ) //t.ensureIndex( { created : -1 } ) t.ensureIndex( { 'a.b.c' : 1 } , { name : "x" } ) } t.update(query, { '$set' : { "a.0.b.c" : 0 } } , false , true ) assert.eq( Z , db.getLastErrorObj().n , "num updated withIndex:" + withIndex ); // now see how many were actually updated. query['a.b.c'] = 0; count = t.count(query); assert.eq( Z , count , "count after withIndex:" + withIndex ); } test( false ) test( true );