Build an Application Using a NoSQL Key-Value Data Store

GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Module 4: Modifying items

Use the API to update attributes of existing items and remove items

Introduction

This module demonstrates how to update an attribute of an item in our table, for example, when we need to update the format of a book because a new audio version has been released. We need to add this new format to our product catalog. In some cases, we may need to remove a format if it is no longer available. The steps below show how to make these changes. 

 Time to Complete

12 minutes

 Prerequisites

  • An AWS account: if you don't already have one, follow the Setting Up Your Environment getting started guide for a quick overview.
  • An installed version of the AWS SDK via pip install boto3

Implementation

Step 1: Update

import boto3 

dynamodb = boto3.client('dynamodb', region_name='us-east-1') 
resp = dynamodb.execute_statement(Statement='UPDATE Books
SET Formats.Audiobook = \'JCV555\'
WHERE 
Author = \'Antje Barth\' AND Title = \'Data Science on AWS\'')
print(resp['Items'])

Step 2: Remove

import boto3
dynamodb = boto3.client('dynamodb', region_name='us-east-1') 
resp = dynamodb.execute_statement(Statement='UPDATE Books
REMOVE Formats.Audiobook
WHERE 
Author = \'Antje Barth\' AND Title = \'Data Science on AWS\'')
print(resp['Items'])

Conclusion

In this module you used the DynamoDB API to update and remove attributes of items in our product catalog. 

Up Next: Cleanup and next steps

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