Update Attribute in DynamoDB Using Java (Guide w/ Code Examples)

You can use the UpdateItemRequest class to perform update an item attribute in DynamoDB. When updating, ensure that you provide the Table Name, Key and the Update Expression to execute during the update.

The following code updates the attributeName attribute of the item with an id attribute of 123 in the MyTable table. The UpdateItemRequest class is used to specify the update expression, which is set attributeName = :val.

import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.AmazonDynamoDB;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.AmazonDynamoDBClientBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.model.AttributeValue;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.model.UpdateItemRequest;
import com.amazonaws.services.dynamodbv2.model.UpdateItemResult;

public class UpdateAttributeExample {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        AmazonDynamoDB client = AmazonDynamoDBClientBuilder.defaultClient();

        Map<String, AttributeValue> key = new HashMap<>();
        key.put("id", new AttributeValue().withN("123"));

        Map<String, AttributeValue> expressionAttributeValues = new HashMap<>();
        expressionAttributeValues.put(":val", new AttributeValue().withS("Jane"));

        UpdateItemRequest updateItemRequest = new UpdateItemRequest()
                .withTableName("MyTable")
                .withKey(key)
                .withUpdateExpression("set firstName = :val")
                .withExpressionAttributeValues(expressionAttributeValues);

        UpdateItemResult result = client.updateItem(updateItemRequest);
        System.out.println(result);
    }
}