Condition Expressions

To manipulate data in an Amazon DynamoDB table, you use the PutItem, UpdateItem, and DeleteItem operations. (You can also use BatchWriteItem to perform multiple PutItem or DeleteItem operations in a single call.)

For these data manipulation operations, you can specify a condition expression to determine which items should be modified. If the condition expression evaluates to true, the operation succeeds; otherwise, the operation fails.

The following are some AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) examples of using condition expressions. These examples are based on the ProductCatalog table, which was introduced in Specifying Item Attributes When Using Expressions. The partition key for this table is Id; there is no sort key. The following PutItem operation creates a sample ProductCatalog item that the examples refer to.

aws dynamodb put-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --item file://item.json 
 

The arguments for --item are stored in the item.json file. (For simplicity, only a few item attributes are used.)

{
    "Id": {"N": "456" },
    "ProductCategory": {"S": "Sporting Goods" },
    "Price": {"N": "650" }
}

Topics

• Preventing Overwrites of an Existing Item
• Checking for Attributes in an Item
• Conditional Deletes
• Conditional Updates
• Comparison Operator and Function Reference

Preventing Overwrites of an Existing Item

The PutItem operation overwrites an item with the same key (if it exists). If you want to avoid this, use a condition expression. This allows the write to proceed only if the item in question does not already have the same key.

aws dynamodb put-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --item file://item.json \
    --condition-expression "attribute_not_exists(Id)"
 

If the condition expression evaluates to false, DynamoDB returns the following error message: The conditional request failed.

Note

For more information about attribute_not_exists and other functions, see Comparison Operator and Function Reference.

Checking for Attributes in an Item

You can check for the existence (or nonexistence) of any attribute. If the condition expression evaluates to true, the operation succeeds; otherwise, it fails.

The following example uses attribute_not_exists to delete a product only if it does not have a Price attribute.

aws dynamodb delete-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --key '{"Id": {"N": "456"}}' \
    --condition-expression "attribute_not_exists(Price)"
 

DynamoDB also provides an attribute_exists function. The following example deletes a product only if it has received poor reviews.

aws dynamodb delete-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --key '{"Id": {"N": "456"}}' \
    --condition-expression "attribute_exists(ProductReviews.OneStar)"
 

Note

For more information about attribute_not_exists, attribute_exists, and other functions, see Comparison Operator and Function Reference.

Conditional Deletes

To perform a conditional delete, you use a DeleteItem operation with a condition expression. The condition expression must evaluate to true in order for the operation to succeed; otherwise, the operation fails.

Consider the item from Condition Expressions.

{
    "Id": {
        "N": "456"
    },
    "Price": {
        "N": "650"
    },
    "ProductCategory": {
        "S": "Sporting Goods"
    }
}

Suppose that you wanted to delete the item, but only under the following conditions:

• The ProductCategory is either "Sporting Goods" or "Gardening Supplies."

• The Price is between 500 and 600.

The following example tries to delete the item.

aws dynamodb delete-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --key '{"Id":{"N":"456"}}' \
    --condition-expression "(ProductCategory IN (:cat1, :cat2)) and (Price between :lo and :hi)" \
    --expression-attribute-values file://values.json
 

The arguments for --expression-attribute-values are stored in the values.json file.

{
    ":cat1": {"S": "Sporting Goods"},
    ":cat2": {"S": "Gardening Supplies"},
    ":lo": {"N": "500"},
    ":hi": {"N": "600"}
}

Note

In the condition expression, the : (colon character) indicates an expression attribute value—a placeholder for an actual value. For more information, see Expression Attribute Values.

For more information about IN, AND, and other keywords, see Comparison Operator and Function Reference.

In this example, the ProductCategory comparison evaluates to true, but the Price comparison evaluates to false. This causes the condition expression to evaluate to false and the DeleteItem operation to fail.

Conditional Updates

To perform a conditional update, you use an UpdateItem operation with a condition expression. The condition expression must evaluate to true in order for the operation to succeed; otherwise, the operation fails.

Note

UpdateItem also supports update expressions, where you specify the modifications you want to make to an item. For more information, see Update Expressions.

Suppose that you started with the item shown in Condition Expressions.

{
    "Id": { "N": "456"},
    "Price": {"N": "650"},
    "ProductCategory": {"S": "Sporting Goods"}
}

The following example performs an UpdateItem operation. It tries to reduce the Price of a product by 75—but the condition expression prevents the update if the current Price is below 500.

aws dynamodb update-item \
    --table-name ProductCatalog \
    --key '{"Id": {"N": "456"}}' \
    --update-expression "SET Price = Price - :discount" \
    --condition-expression "Price > :limit" \
    --expression-attribute-values file://values.json
 

The arguments for --item are stored in the values.json file.

{
    ":discount": { "N": "75"},
    ":limit": {"N": "500"}
}

If the starting Price is 650, the UpdateItem operation reduces the Price to 575. If you run the UpdateItem operation again, the Price is reduced to 500. If you run it a third time, the condition expression evaluates to false, and the update fails.

Note

In the condition expression, the : (colon character) indicates an expression attribute value—a placeholder for an actual value. For more information, see Expression Attribute Values.

For more information about ">" and other operators, see Comparison Operator and Function Reference.