Remove with DynamoDB Mapper (Guide w/ Code Examples)

Provided by Rafal Wilinski
Last updated: October 23rd, 2026
DeleteItem removes one item identified by its full primary key. Deleting a key that does not exist succeeds without creating or changing another item.
DynamoDBMapper belongs to AWS SDK for Java 1.x and cannot be constructed with a 2.x DynamoDbClient. The example below shows the SDK 2.x low-level equivalent. For mapped domain objects, use the DynamoDB Enhanced Client.
This example uses Java 17+ and the software.amazon.awssdk:dynamodb SDK 2.x dependency. Configure an AWS Region and credentials through your usual AWS profile or runtime role. The Orders table has String keys pk and sk; adapt the table and keys to your schema.
import java.util.*; import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.DynamoDbClient; import software.amazon.awssdk.services.dynamodb.model.*; public class Example { static AttributeValue s(String value) { return AttributeValue.builder().s(value).build(); } static Map<String, AttributeValue> key(String order) { return Map.of("pk", s("CUSTOMER#123"), "sk", s(order)); } public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { try (DynamoDbClient ddb = DynamoDbClient.create()) { ddb.deleteItem(DeleteItemRequest.builder() .tableName("Orders").key(key("ORDER#001")).build()); } } }
For a table with a sort key, supplying only the partition key is insufficient. Use a query followed by individual deletes to remove an entire item collection.
Reference: AWS DeleteItem API. For related access patterns, see DynamoDB query examples.
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