DescribeTables - Amazon DynamoDB

DescribeTables

Important

This section refers to API version 2011-12-05, which is deprecated and should not be used for new applications.

For documentation on the current low-level API, see the Amazon DynamoDB API Reference.

Description

Returns information about the table, including the current status of the table, the primary key schema and when the table was created. DescribeTable results are eventually consistent. If you use DescribeTable too early in the process of creating a table, DynamoDB returns a ResourceNotFoundException. If you use DescribeTable too early in the process of updating a table, the new values might not be immediately available.

Requests

Syntax

// This header is abbreviated. // For a sample of a complete header, see DynamoDB low-level API. POST / HTTP/1.1 x-amz-target: DynamoDB_20111205.DescribeTable content-type: application/x-amz-json-1.0 {"TableName":"Table1"}
Name Description Required
TableName

The name of the table to describe.

Type: String

Yes

Responses

Syntax

HTTP/1.1 200 x-amzn-RequestId: 8966d095-71e9-11e0-a498-71d736f27375 content-type: application/x-amz-json-1.0 Content-Length: 543 {"Table": {"CreationDateTime":1.309988345372E9, ItemCount:1, "KeySchema": {"HashKeyElement":{"AttributeName":"AttributeName1","AttributeType":"S"}, "RangeKeyElement":{"AttributeName":"AttributeName2","AttributeType":"N"}}, "ProvisionedThroughput":{"LastIncreaseDateTime": Date, "LastDecreaseDateTime": Date, "ReadCapacityUnits":10,"WriteCapacityUnits":10}, "TableName":"Table1", "TableSizeBytes":1, "TableStatus":"ACTIVE" } }
Name Description
Table

Container for the table being described.

Type: String

CreationDateTime Date when the table was created in UNIX epoch time.
ItemCount

Number of items in the specified table. DynamoDB updates this value approximately every six hours. Recent changes might not be reflected in this value.

Type: Number

KeySchema The primary key (simple or composite) structure for the table. A name-value pair for the HashKeyElement is required, and a name-value pair for the RangeKeyElement is optional (only required for composite primary keys). The maximum hash key size is 2048 bytes. The maximum range key size is 1024 bytes. Both limits are enforced separately (i.e. you can have a combined hash + range 2048 + 1024 key). For more information about primary keys, see Primary key .
ProvisionedThroughput Throughput for the specified table, consisting of values for LastIncreaseDateTime (if applicable), LastDecreaseDateTime (if applicable), ReadCapacityUnits and WriteCapacityUnits. If the throughput for the table has never been increased or decreased, DynamoDB does not return values for those elements. See Managing settings on DynamoDB provisioned capacity tables.

Type: Array

TableName

The name of the requested table.

Type: String

TableSizeBytes

Total size of the specified table, in bytes. DynamoDB updates this value approximately every six hours. Recent changes might not be reflected in this value.

Type: Number

TableStatus The current state of the table (CREATING, ACTIVE, DELETING or UPDATING). Once the table is in the ACTIVE state, you can add data.

Special errors

No errors are specific to this operation.

Examples

The following examples show an HTTP POST request and response using the DescribeTable operation for a table named "comp-table". The table has a composite primary key.

Sample Request

// This header is abbreviated. // For a sample of a complete header, see DynamoDB low-level API. POST / HTTP/1.1 x-amz-target: DynamoDB_20111205.DescribeTable content-type: application/x-amz-json-1.0 {"TableName":"users"}

Sample response

HTTP/1.1 200 x-amzn-RequestId: 8966d095-71e9-11e0-a498-71d736f27375 content-type: application/x-amz-json-1.0 content-length: 543 {"Table": {"CreationDateTime":1.309988345372E9, "ItemCount":23, "KeySchema": {"HashKeyElement":{"AttributeName":"user","AttributeType":"S"}, "RangeKeyElement":{"AttributeName":"time","AttributeType":"N"}}, "ProvisionedThroughput":{"LastIncreaseDateTime": 1.309988345384E9, "ReadCapacityUnits":10,"WriteCapacityUnits":10}, "TableName":"users", "TableSizeBytes":949, "TableStatus":"ACTIVE" } }