Working with Items in DynamoDB

In DynamoDB, an item is a collection of attributes, each of which has a name and a value. An attribute value can be a scalar, set, or document type. For more information, see Naming Rules and Data Types in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Retrieve an Item from a Table

Call the DynamoDB client GetItem method. Pass it a GetItemRequest object with the table name and primary key value of the item you want. It returns a GetItemResult object.

You can use the returned GetItemResult object’s GetItem() method to retrieve an Aws::Map of key Aws::String and value AttributeValue pairs associated with the item.

Includes

#include <aws/core/Aws.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/DynamoDBClient.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/AttributeDefinition.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/GetItemRequest.h>
#include <iostream>

Code

//! Get an item from an Amazon DynamoDB table.
/*!
  \sa getItem()
  \param tableName: The table name.
  \param partitionKey: The partition key.
  \param partitionValue: The value for the partition key.
  \param clientConfiguration: AWS client configuration.
  \return bool: Function succeeded.
 */

bool AwsDoc::DynamoDB::getItem(const Aws::String &tableName,
                               const Aws::String &partitionKey,
                               const Aws::String &partitionValue,
                               const Aws::Client::ClientConfiguration &clientConfiguration) {
    Aws::DynamoDB::DynamoDBClient dynamoClient(clientConfiguration);
    Aws::DynamoDB::Model::GetItemRequest request;

    // Set up the request.
    request.SetTableName(tableName);
    request.AddKey(partitionKey,
                   Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue().SetS(partitionValue));

    // Retrieve the item's fields and values.
    const Aws::DynamoDB::Model::GetItemOutcome &outcome = dynamoClient.GetItem(request);
    if (outcome.IsSuccess()) {
        // Reference the retrieved fields/values.
        const Aws::Map<Aws::String, Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue> &item = outcome.GetResult().GetItem();
        if (!item.empty()) {
            // Output each retrieved field and its value.
            for (const auto &i: item)
                std::cout << "Values: " << i.first << ": " << i.second.GetS()
                          << std::endl;
        }
        else {
            std::cout << "No item found with the key " << partitionKey << std::endl;
        }
    }
    else {
        std::cerr << "Failed to get item: " << outcome.GetError().GetMessage();
    }

    return outcome.IsSuccess();
}

See the complete example on GitHub.

Add an Item to a Table

Create key Aws::String and value AttributeValue pairs that represent each item. These must include values for the table’s primary key fields. If the item identified by the primary key already exists, its fields are updated by the request. Add them to the PutItemRequest using the AddItem method.

Includes

#include <aws/core/Aws.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/DynamoDBClient.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/AttributeDefinition.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/PutItemRequest.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/PutItemResult.h>
#include <iostream>

Code

//! Put an item in an Amazon DynamoDB table.
/*!
  \sa putItem()
  \param tableName: The table name.
  \param artistKey: The artist key. This is the partition key for the table.
  \param artistValue: The artist value.
  \param albumTitleKey: The album title key.
  \param albumTitleValue: The album title value.
  \param awardsKey: The awards key.
  \param awardsValue: The awards value.
  \param songTitleKey: The song title key.
  \param songTitleValue: The song title value.
  \param clientConfiguration: AWS client configuration.
  \return bool: Function succeeded.
 */
bool AwsDoc::DynamoDB::putItem(const Aws::String &tableName,
                               const Aws::String &artistKey,
                               const Aws::String &artistValue,
                               const Aws::String &albumTitleKey,
                               const Aws::String &albumTitleValue,
                               const Aws::String &awardsKey,
                               const Aws::String &awardsValue,
                               const Aws::String &songTitleKey,
                               const Aws::String &songTitleValue,
                               const Aws::Client::ClientConfiguration &clientConfiguration) {
    Aws::DynamoDB::DynamoDBClient dynamoClient(clientConfiguration);

    Aws::DynamoDB::Model::PutItemRequest putItemRequest;
    putItemRequest.SetTableName(tableName);

    putItemRequest.AddItem(artistKey, Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue().SetS(
            artistValue)); // This is the hash key.
    putItemRequest.AddItem(albumTitleKey, Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue().SetS(
            albumTitleValue));
    putItemRequest.AddItem(awardsKey,
                           Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue().SetS(awardsValue));
    putItemRequest.AddItem(songTitleKey,
                           Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue().SetS(songTitleValue));

    const Aws::DynamoDB::Model::PutItemOutcome outcome = dynamoClient.PutItem(
            putItemRequest);
    if (outcome.IsSuccess()) {
        std::cout << "Successfully added Item!" << std::endl;
    }
    else {
        std::cerr << outcome.GetError().GetMessage() << std::endl;
        return false;
    }

    return waitTableActive(tableName, dynamoClient);
}

See the complete example on GitHub.

Update an Existing Item in a Table

You can update an attribute for an item that already exists in a table by using the DynamoDBClient’s UpdateItem method, providing a table name, primary key value, and fields to update and their corresponding value.

Imports

#include <aws/core/Aws.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/DynamoDBClient.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/UpdateItemRequest.h>
#include <aws/dynamodb/model/UpdateItemResult.h>
#include <iostream>

Code

//! Update an Amazon DynamoDB table item.
/*!
  \sa updateItem()
  \param tableName: The table name.
  \param partitionKey: The partition key.
  \param partitionValue: The value for the partition key.
  \param attributeKey: The key for the attribute to be updated.
  \param attributeValue: The value for the attribute to be updated.
  \param clientConfiguration: AWS client configuration.
  \return bool: Function succeeded.
  */

/*
 *  The example code only sets/updates an attribute value. It processes
 *  the attribute value as a string, even if the value could be interpreted
 *  as a number. Also, the example code does not remove an existing attribute
 *  from the key value.
 */

bool AwsDoc::DynamoDB::updateItem(const Aws::String &tableName,
                                  const Aws::String &partitionKey,
                                  const Aws::String &partitionValue,
                                  const Aws::String &attributeKey,
                                  const Aws::String &attributeValue,
                                  const Aws::Client::ClientConfiguration &clientConfiguration) {
    Aws::DynamoDB::DynamoDBClient dynamoClient(clientConfiguration);

    // *** Define UpdateItem request arguments.
    // Define TableName argument.
    Aws::DynamoDB::Model::UpdateItemRequest request;
    request.SetTableName(tableName);

    // Define KeyName argument.
    Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue attribValue;
    attribValue.SetS(partitionValue);
    request.AddKey(partitionKey, attribValue);

    // Construct the SET update expression argument.
    Aws::String update_expression("SET #a = :valueA");
    request.SetUpdateExpression(update_expression);

    // Construct attribute name argument.
    Aws::Map<Aws::String, Aws::String> expressionAttributeNames;
    expressionAttributeNames["#a"] = attributeKey;
    request.SetExpressionAttributeNames(expressionAttributeNames);

    // Construct attribute value argument.
    Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue attributeUpdatedValue;
    attributeUpdatedValue.SetS(attributeValue);
    Aws::Map<Aws::String, Aws::DynamoDB::Model::AttributeValue> expressionAttributeValues;
    expressionAttributeValues[":valueA"] = attributeUpdatedValue;
    request.SetExpressionAttributeValues(expressionAttributeValues);

    // Update the item.
    const Aws::DynamoDB::Model::UpdateItemOutcome &outcome = dynamoClient.UpdateItem(
            request);
    if (outcome.IsSuccess()) {
        std::cout << "Item was updated" << std::endl;
    } else {
        std::cerr << outcome.GetError().GetMessage() << std::endl;
        return false;
    }

    return waitTableActive(tableName, dynamoClient);
}

See the complete example.

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