Question: I want to join more than two collections in MongoDB using the aggregate `$lookup`. Is it possible to join? Give me some examples.

Here I have three collections:

`users`:

```
{    
    "_id" : ObjectId("5684f3c454b1fd6926c324fd"),
    "email" : "admin@gmail.com",
    "userId" : "AD",
    "userName" : "admin"
}

```

`userinfo`:

```
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
    "userId" : "AD",
    "phone" : "0000000000"
}

```

`userrole`:

```
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
    "userId" : "AD",
    "role" : "admin"
}

```

Answer: 
You can actually chain multiple $lookup stages. Based on the names of the collections shared by profesor79, you can do this :

```
db.sivaUserInfo.aggregate([
    {
        $lookup: {
           from: "sivaUserRole",
           localField: "userId",
           foreignField: "userId",
           as: "userRole"
        }
    },
    {
        $unwind: "$userRole"
    },
    {
        $lookup: {
            from: "sivaUserInfo",
            localField: "userId",
            foreignField: "userId",
            as: "userInfo"
        }
    },
    {
        $unwind: "$userInfo"
    }
])

```

This will return the following structure :

```
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
    "userId" : "AD",
    "phone" : "0000000000",
    "userRole" : {
        "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
        "userId" : "AD",
        "role" : "admin"
    },
    "userInfo" : {
        "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
        "userId" : "AD",
        "phone" : "0000000000"
    }
}

```

Maybe this could be considered an anti-pattern because MongoDB wasn't meant to be relational but it is useful.
According to the [documentation](https://docs.mongodb.org/manual/reference/operator/aggregation/lookup/), $lookup can join only one external collection.

What you could do is to combine `userInfo` and `userRole` in one collection, as provided example is based on relational DB schema. Mongo is noSQL database - and this require different approach for document management.

Please find below 2-step query, which combines userInfo with userRole - creating new temporary collection used in last query to display combined data.
In last query there is an option to use $out and create new collection with merged data for later use.

> 
> create collections
> 
> 
> 

```
db.sivaUser.insert(
{    
    "_id" : ObjectId("5684f3c454b1fd6926c324fd"),
        "email" : "admin@gmail.com",
        "userId" : "AD",
        "userName" : "admin"
})

//"userinfo"
db.sivaUserInfo.insert(
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
    "userId" : "AD",
    "phone" : "0000000000"
})

//"userrole"
db.sivaUserRole.insert(
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("56d82612b63f1c31cf906003"),
    "userId" : "AD",
    "role" : "admin"
})

```

> 
> "join" them all :-)
> 
> 
> 

```
db.sivaUserInfo.aggregate([
    {$lookup:
        {
           from: "sivaUserRole",
           localField: "userId",
           foreignField: "userId",
           as: "userRole"
        }
    },
    {
        $unwind:"$userRole"
    },
    {
        $project:{
            "_id":1,
            "userId" : 1,
            "phone" : 1,
            "role" :"$userRole.role"
        }
    },
    {
        $out:"sivaUserTmp"
    }
])

db.sivaUserTmp.aggregate([
    {$lookup:
        {
           from: "sivaUser",
           localField: "userId",
           foreignField: "userId",
           as: "user"
        }
    },
    {
        $unwind:"$user"
    },
    {
        $project:{
            "_id":1,
            "userId" : 1,
            "phone" : 1,
            "role" :1,
            "email" : "$user.email",
            "userName" : "$user.userName"
        }
    }
])

```