Error: dynamodb atomic counter not working

Answered by Rafal Wilinski
What's Causing This Error
You may encounter this error when trying to increment a value by using the "+
" operator on a document path that does not exist for the item.
Solution - Here's How To Resolve It
To resolve the error, ensure that the document path that you provide exists in DynamoDB. If not, make sure to initialize the document path with a new value. This fix is shown below.
const doFunStuff = async () => { await documentClient.update({ TableName: 'test-table', Key: { pk: '1' }, UpdateExpression: 'set #count = if_not_exists(#count, :zero) + :incr', ExpressionAttributeNames: { '#count': 'count' }, ExpressionAttributeValues: { ':incr': 1, ':zero': 0 } }).promise(); }; doFunStuff();
The snippet above uses the if_not_exists()
function in DynamoDB that checks if a value exists at the specified document path. If not, it will initialize "0" at the specified document path before incrementing.
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