Table creation with AWS SDK in DynamoDB - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Table creation with AWS SDK

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a database table in AWS DynamoDB to store user information for a new web application.

🎯 Goal: Create a DynamoDB table named Users with a primary key UserId of type string using the AWS SDK.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable called tableName with the value "Users".

Create a variable called keySchema defining the primary key with AttributeName as UserId and KeyType as HASH.

Create a variable called attributeDefinitions defining the attribute UserId with type S (string).

Create a variable called provisionedThroughput with ReadCapacityUnits and WriteCapacityUnits both set to 5.

Create a variable called params that combines all the above variables into a single object for table creation.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Creating DynamoDB tables is a common task when building serverless applications or cloud-native apps that need fast, scalable NoSQL databases.

💼 Career

Understanding how to configure and create DynamoDB tables using the AWS SDK is essential for cloud developers, DevOps engineers, and backend engineers working with AWS.

1

Create table name and key schema

Create a variable called tableName and set it to "Users". Then create a variable called keySchema as a list with one object that has AttributeName set to "UserId" and KeyType set to "HASH".

DynamoDB

# Create the tableName variable and keySchema list
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const to declare variables. The keySchema is an array with one object describing the primary key.

2

Define attribute definitions

Create a variable called attributeDefinitions as a list with one object that has AttributeName set to "UserId" and AttributeType set to "S".

DynamoDB

const tableName = "Users";
const keySchema = [{ AttributeName: "UserId", KeyType: "HASH" }];
// Create attributeDefinitions array
// Your code here

Need a hint?

The attributeDefinitions array describes the data type of each key attribute.

3

Set provisioned throughput

Create a variable called provisionedThroughput as an object with ReadCapacityUnits set to 5 and WriteCapacityUnits set to 5.

DynamoDB

const tableName = "Users";
const keySchema = [{ AttributeName: "UserId", KeyType: "HASH" }];
const attributeDefinitions = [{ AttributeName: "UserId", AttributeType: "S" }];
// Create provisionedThroughput object
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Provisioned throughput sets how many reads and writes your table can handle per second.

4

Combine all into params object

Create a variable called params as an object that includes TableName set to tableName, KeySchema set to keySchema, AttributeDefinitions set to attributeDefinitions, and ProvisionedThroughput set to provisionedThroughput.

DynamoDB

const tableName = "Users";
const keySchema = [{ AttributeName: "UserId", KeyType: "HASH" }];
const attributeDefinitions = [{ AttributeName: "UserId", AttributeType: "S" }];
const provisionedThroughput = { ReadCapacityUnits: 5, WriteCapacityUnits: 5 };
// Create params object combining all variables
// Your code here

Need a hint?

The params object is what you pass to the AWS SDK to create the table.