Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service offered by AWS. It provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to get started with DynamoDB using Python, including setting up your environment, creating tables, inserting data, and querying your database.

Table of Contents

1. What is DynamoDB?

2. Why Use DynamoDB with Python?

3. Prerequisites

4. Install Boto3 (AWS SDK for Python)

5. Configure AWS Credentials

6. Create a DynamoDB Table

7. Insert (Put) Items

8. Retrieve (Get) Items

9. Full Working Example

10. Tips and Best Practices

11. Common Pitfalls

12. Conclusion

What is DynamoDB?

DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. It's serverless, highly available, and designed for performance.

Key features:

• NoSQL (schema-less)

• Built-in replication and backup

• Integrates well with other AWS services

• Uses tables, items (rows), and attributes (columns)

❓ Why Use DynamoDB with Python?

Python is widely used for backend development, data science, and scripting. When combined with Boto3, the AWS SDK for Python, it becomes easy to interact with DynamoDB.

Use cases:

• Serverless applications

• IoT data collection

• Real-time analytics

• Caching and session storage

✅ Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• An AWS account

• Python 3.7 or higher

• AWS IAM credentials with access to DynamoDB

• AWS CLI (optional but recommended)

Step 1: Install Boto3

pip install boto3

This installs the Boto3 library, which is the official AWS SDK for Python.

Step 2: Configure AWS Credentials

You can configure your credentials using the AWS CLI:

aws configure

You'll be prompted to enter:

• AWS Access Key ID

• AWS Secret Access Key

• Default region (e.g., us-east-1)

• Output format (e.g., json)

Alternatively, you can use a .env file or directly set environment variables in Python (not recommended for production).

Step 3: Create a DynamoDB Table

import boto3

# Create DynamoDB client
dynamodb = boto3.resource('dynamodb', region_name='us-east-1')

# Create table
table = dynamodb.create_table(
    TableName='Users',
    KeySchema=[
        {
            'AttributeName': 'user_id',
            'KeyType': 'HASH'  # Partition key
        }
    ],
    AttributeDefinitions=[
        {
            'AttributeName': 'user_id',
            'AttributeType': 'S'  # S = String, N = Number, B = Binary
        }
    ],
    ProvisionedThroughput={
        'ReadCapacityUnits': 5,
        'WriteCapacityUnits': 5
    }
)

# Wait until the table exists
table.meta.client.get_waiter('table_exists').wait(TableName='Users')
print("Table status:", table.table_status)

Step 4: Insert (Put) Items

table = dynamodb.Table('Users')

response = table.put_item(
   Item={
        'user_id': '123',
        'name': 'Alice',
        'email': '[email protected]'
    }
)

print("PutItem succeeded:", response)

Step 5: Retrieve (Get) Items

response = table.get_item(
    Key={
        'user_id': '123'
    }
)

item = response.get('Item')
print("Retrieved Item:", item)

✅ Full Working Example

import boto3

# Connect to DynamoDB
dynamodb = boto3.resource('dynamodb', region_name='us-east-1')

# Create table (if needed)
table_name = 'Users'
existing_tables = [table.name for table in dynamodb.tables.all()]
if table_name not in existing_tables:
    table = dynamodb.create_table(
        TableName=table_name,
        KeySchema=[{'AttributeName': 'user_id', 'KeyType': 'HASH'}],
        AttributeDefinitions=[{'AttributeName': 'user_id', 'AttributeType': 'S'}],
        ProvisionedThroughput={'ReadCapacityUnits': 5, 'WriteCapacityUnits': 5}
    )
    table.meta.client.get_waiter('table_exists').wait(TableName=table_name)

# Insert data
table = dynamodb.Table(table_name)
table.put_item(Item={'user_id': '001', 'name': 'John Doe', 'email': '[email protected]'})

# Retrieve data
response = table.get_item(Key={'user_id': '001'})
item = response.get('Item')
print("User:", item)

Tips and Best Practices

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Conclusion

DynamoDB is a powerful, serverless NoSQL database that pairs perfectly with Python for building modern cloud applications. This guide covered everything to help you get started:

✅ Installing and configuring Boto3
✅ Creating a table
✅ Inserting and retrieving data
✅ Understanding best practices and pitfalls