DynamoDbScan Expression using aws-sdk java - amazon-dynamodb

I am using aws-sdk to connect with DynamoDb and I have got into a scenario where I got one dynamodb table with different partition/hash-key and I have to scan and filter to get the results. Scanning the entire table would be a costly operation . Is there a way to scan only a certain partion/haskey of a table ?

You have to use Dynamo DB Query. You can query any table or secondary index that has a composite primary key (a partition key and a sort key).
In my opinion you shouldn't use scan, because it very costly and slow.
You didn't write what is the program language, but here is some example to query:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/latest/AWS/DynamoDB.html#query-property
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/APIReference/API_Query.html
https://www.dynamodbguide.com/querying/
About indices:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/SQLtoNoSQL.Indexes.html
UPDATE #1:
Maybe that will help:
Add a new column to your table. The values will be static. (For example: Col name: const_value Values: const)
Create a new secondary index to your table.
'partition key': 'const_value'
'sort key': the column what you want to filter
You can use Query.

Related

How do I query DynamoDB without specifying a partition key value?

I have a simple table consisting of orderID as PK and userID as SK, I found out that in dynamoDB you need to specify both PK and SK to use query. so in this case, how is it possible for me to get all the orders for userID x since I can't ignore orderID since they're the partition key of this table? another way to solve this which works but not recomended is using a scan filter, which scans the whole table then filters the result. it will eventually slow down as the table grow. I wonder how do you guys do it with this scenario?
You can create a Global Secondary Index (GSI) based on userId and query based on that index.
You can read more about indexes and GSI’s in the AWS docs here.

How to fetch multiple rows from DynamoDB using a non primary key

select * from tableName where columnName="value";
How can I fetch a similar result in DynamoDB using java, without using primary key as my attribute (Need to group data based on a value for a particular column).
I have gone through articles regarding getbatchitems, QuerySpec but all these require me to pass the primary key.
Can someone give a lead here?
Short answer is you can't. Whenever you use the Query or GetItem operations in DynamoDB you must always supply the table or index primary key.
You have two options:
Perform a Scan operation on the table and filter by columnName="value". However this requires DynamoDB to look at every item in the table so it is likely to be slow and expensive.
Add a Global Secondary Index to your table. This will require you to define a primary key for the index that contains the columnName you want to query

AWS DynamoDB Query based on non-primary keys

I'm new to AWS DynamoDB and wanted to clarify something. Is it possible to query a table and filter base on a non-primary key attribute. My table looks like the following
Store
Id: PrimaryKey
Name: simple string
Location: simple string
Now I want to query on the Name, but I think I have to give the key as well from what I know? Apart from that I can use the scan but then I will be loading all the data.
From the docs:
The Query operation finds items based on primary key values. You can query any table or secondary index that has a composite primary key (a partition key and a sort key).
DynamoDB requires queries to always use the partition key.
In your case your options are:
create a Global Secondary Index that uses Name as a primary key
use a Scan + Filter if the table is relatively small, or if you expect the result set will include the majority of the records in the table
There are few designs principals that you can follow while you are using DynamoDB. If you are coming from a relational background, you have already witnessed the query limitations from primary key attributes.
Design your tables, for querying and separating hot and cold data.
Create Indexes for Querying from Non Key attributes (You have two options, Global Secondary Index which you can define at any time and Local Secondary Index which you need to specify at table creation time).
With the Global Secondary Index you can promote any NonKey attribute as the Partition Key for the Index and select another attribute for Sort Key for querying. For Local Secondary Index, you can promote any Non Key attribute as the Sort Key keeping the same Partition Key.
Using Indexes for query is important also to improve the efficiency in using provisioned throughput.
Although having indexes consumes the read throughput from the table, it also saves read through put from in a way that, if you project the right amount of attributes to read, it can give a huge benefit in reading. Check the following example.
Lets say you have a DynamoDB table that has items of 40KB. If you read directly from the table to list 10 items, it consumes 100 Read Throughput Units (For one item 10 Units since one unit can read 4KB and multiply it by 10). If you have an index defined just to project the attributes needed to list which will be having 4KB per item, then it will be consuming only 10 Read Throughput Units(One Unit per item) which makes a huge difference in terms of cost.
With DynamoDB its really important how you define Indexes to optimize for Querying not only from Query capability but also in terms of throughput.
You can not query based non-primary key attribute in Dynamo Db.
If you wanted to still do that you can do it using scan query,but scan is costly operation in DyanmoDB and if table is large, then it will affect performance and not recommended because it will scan each item in table and AWS cost you for all item it scan for that query.
There are two ways to achieve it
Keep Store Id as your PrimaryKey/ Partaion key of Dyanmo DB table and add Name/Location as sort Key (only one as Dyanmo DB accept only one Attribute as sort key by design.
Create Global Secondary Indexes for Querying from Non Key attributes which you are more frequenly required.
There are 3 ways to created GSI in Dyanamo DB, In your case select GSI with option INCLUDE and add Name , Location and store ID in Idex.
KEYS_ONLY – Each item in the index consists only of the table partition key and sort key values, plus the index key values. The KEYS_ONLY option results in the smallest possible secondary index.
INCLUDE – In addition to the attributes described in KEYS_ONLY, the secondary index will include other non-key attributes that you specify.
ALL – The secondary index includes all of the attributes from the source table. Because all of the table data is duplicated in the index, an ALL projection results in the largest possible secondary index.

Dynamodb query expression

Team,
I have a dynamodb with a given hashkey (userid) and sort key (ages). Lets say if we want to retrieve the elements as "per each hashkey(userid), smallest age" output, what would be the query and filter expression for the dynamo query.
Thanks!
I don't think you can do it in a query. You would need to do full table scan. If you have a list of hash keys somewhere, then you can do N queries (in parallel) instead.
[Update] Here is another possible approach:
Maintain a second table, where you have just a hash key (userID). This table will contain record with the smallest age for given user. To achieve that, make sure that every time you update main table you also update second one if new age is less than current age in the second table. You can use conditional update for that. Update can either be done by application itself, or you can have AWS lambda listening to dynamoDB stream. Now if you need smallest age for each use, you still do full table scan of the second table, but this scan will only read relevant records, to it will be optimal.
There are two ways to achieve that:
If you don't need to get this data in realtime you can export your data into a other AWS systems, like EMR or Redshift and perform complex analytics queries there. With this you can write SQL expressions using joins and group by operators.
You can even perform EMR Hive queries on DynamoDB data, but they perform scans, so it's not very cost efficient.
Another option is use DynamoDB streams. You can maintain a separate table that stores:
Table: MinAges
UserId - primary key
MinAge - regular numeric attribute
On every update/delete/insert of an original query you can query minimum age for an updated user and store into the MinAges table
Another option is to write something like this:
storeNewAge(userId, newAge)
def smallestAge = getSmallestAgeFor(userId)
storeSmallestAge(userId, smallestAge)
But since DynamoDB does not has native transactions support it's dangerous to run code like that, since you may end up with inconsistent data. You can use DynamoDB transactions library, but these transactions are expensive. While if you are using streams you will have consistent data, at a very low price.
You can do it using ScanIndexForward
YourEntity requestEntity = new YourEntity();
requestEntity.setHashKey(hashkey);
DynamoDBQueryExpression<YourEntity> queryExpression = new DynamoDBQueryExpression<YourEntity>()
.withHashKeyValues(requestEntity)
.withConsistentRead(false);
equeryExpression.setIndexName(IndexName); // if you are using any index
queryExpression.setScanIndexForward(false);
queryExpression.setLimit(1);

Query DynamoDB table using only two Global secondary indices in AWS sdk for .net

I've a Dynamodb table with two global secondary indexes. and I need to query this table based only on both of those indexes at once without using the hash key of the table. Is there any particular way to do this in AWS sdk for .net? It seems this is impossible in high level API.
eg:-(SQL equivalent query would be:-) SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE FIRST_GLOBAL_SECONDARY_INDEX='x' AND SECOND_GLOBAL_SECONDARY_INDEX='y';
You can only query a single GSI, not multiple. You would have to project the 2nd attribute (I'm assuming by other GSI you mean another attribute) onto the 1st index. Choosing which depends on your usage. Then, you have both attributes on a single index which you can query with the hashKey of the first attribute and use a FilterExpression for the second attribute.

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