Partition key and sort key in AWS - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Partition key and sort key

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple database table in AWS DynamoDB to store information about books in a library. Each book has a unique ISBN number and a title. You want to organize the table so that you can quickly find books by their ISBN and also sort them by their title within the same ISBN.

🎯 Goal: Create a DynamoDB table with a partition key and a sort key. The partition key should be ISBN to uniquely identify each book. The sort key should be Title to allow sorting books by their title within the same ISBN.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a DynamoDB table named LibraryBooks.

Use ISBN as the partition key of type string.

Use Title as the sort key of type string.

Set the billing mode to PAY_PER_REQUEST for simplicity.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

DynamoDB tables with partition and sort keys are used in many applications to store and query data efficiently, such as user profiles, product catalogs, and event logs.

💼 Career

Understanding partition and sort keys is essential for cloud architects and developers working with AWS DynamoDB to design scalable and performant NoSQL databases.

1

Create the basic table structure

Create a DynamoDB table resource named LibraryBooks with an empty AttributeDefinitions and KeySchema arrays.

AWS

Resources:
  LibraryBooks:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      AttributeDefinitions: []
      KeySchema: []
      BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Start by defining the DynamoDB table resource with empty attribute and key schema lists.

2

Define the partition key attribute

Add an attribute definition for the partition key named ISBN of type S (string) inside AttributeDefinitions. Also add a key schema entry for the partition key with AttributeName as ISBN and KeyType as HASH.

AWS

Resources:
  LibraryBooks:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      AttributeDefinitions:
        # Add partition key attribute definition here
      KeySchema:
        # Add partition key schema here
      BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The partition key is the main key to find items. Use HASH for partition key.

3

Add the sort key attribute

Add an attribute definition for the sort key named Title of type S inside AttributeDefinitions. Also add a key schema entry for the sort key with AttributeName as Title and KeyType as RANGE.

AWS

Resources:
  LibraryBooks:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      AttributeDefinitions:
        - AttributeName: ISBN
          AttributeType: S
        # Add sort key attribute definition here
      KeySchema:
        - AttributeName: ISBN
          KeyType: HASH
        # Add sort key schema here
      BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The sort key helps sort items with the same partition key. Use RANGE for sort key.

4

Complete the table configuration

Ensure the table name is set to LibraryBooks in the Properties section.

AWS

Resources:
  LibraryBooks:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      AttributeDefinitions:
        - AttributeName: ISBN
          AttributeType: S
        - AttributeName: Title
          AttributeType: S
      KeySchema:
        - AttributeName: ISBN
          KeyType: HASH
        - AttributeName: Title
          KeyType: RANGE
      BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
      # Add TableName property here
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Set the TableName property to the exact table name.