AWS DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service providing fast, predictable performance at any scale. It supports key-value and document data structures.

Table of Contents

• Core Concepts
• Common Patterns
• CLI Reference
• Best Practices
• Troubleshooting
• References

Core Concepts

Keys

Key Type	Description
Partition Key (PK)	Required. Determines data distribution
Sort Key (SK)	Optional. Enables range queries within partition
Composite Key	PK + SK combination

Secondary Indexes

Index Type	Description
GSI (Global Secondary Index)	Different PK/SK, separate throughput, eventually consistent
LSI (Local Secondary Index)	Same PK, different SK, shares table throughput, strongly consistent option

Capacity Modes

Mode	Use Case
On-Demand	Unpredictable traffic, pay-per-request
Provisioned	Predictable traffic, lower cost, can use auto-scaling

Common Patterns

Create a Table

AWS CLI:

aws dynamodb create-table \
  --table-name Users \
  --attribute-definitions \
    AttributeName=PK,AttributeType=S \
    AttributeName=SK,AttributeType=S \
  --key-schema \
    AttributeName=PK,KeyType=HASH \
    AttributeName=SK,KeyType=RANGE \
  --billing-mode PAY_PER_REQUEST

boto3:

import boto3

dynamodb = boto3.resource('dynamodb')

table = dynamodb.create_table(
    TableName='Users',
    KeySchema=[
        {'AttributeName': 'PK', 'KeyType': 'HASH'},
        {'AttributeName': 'SK', 'KeyType': 'RANGE'}
    ],
    AttributeDefinitions=[
        {'AttributeName': 'PK', 'AttributeType': 'S'},
        {'AttributeName': 'SK', 'AttributeType': 'S'}
    ],
    BillingMode='PAY_PER_REQUEST'
)

table.wait_until_exists()