This document summarizes a presentation on data modeling with Amazon DynamoDB. The presentation covers key DynamoDB concepts like tables, items, primary keys and attributes. It also discusses different data modeling strategies and patterns for modeling one-to-many relationships, including using sort keys, secondary indexes and attribute maps. The presentation provides an example of modeling data for an e-commerce application and demonstrates how to design queries and implement filtering using primary keys and sort key conditions.

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Data modeling with
Amazon DynamoDB
Alex DeBrie
Engineering Manager
Serverless, Inc.
A D B 3 0 1

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Agenda
What is DynamoDB?
Key concepts
Data modeling strategies

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Alex DeBrie
Engineering Manager, Serverless, Inc.
DynamoDBGuide.com
@alexbdebrie
alexdebrie.com

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What is DynamoDB?
NoSQL database
Fully managed by AWS
HTTPS with AWS Identity and Access
Management (IAM) Auth
Fast, consistent performance as it scales

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Hyperscale

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Hyperephemeral compute

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Concepts
• Table
• Item
• Primary key
• Attributes

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Table

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Item

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Primarykey

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Attributes

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Primary key
• Simple primary key (partition key)
• Composite primary key (partition key + sort key)

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Simple primarykey

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Composite primarykey

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API actions
• Item-based actions

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Item-based actions – Writing, updating, deleting

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Item-based actions – Writing, updating, deleting
Must
provide
entire
primary
key

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API actions
• Item-based actions
• Query

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Query

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Query
Must
provide
partition
key
May
provide sort
key
conditions

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API actions
• Item-based actions
• Query
• Scan

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Scan

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Scan
Avoid!
Expensive at
scale

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Secondary indexes

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Secondaryindexes

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Secondaryindexes

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Secondaryindexes

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Secondaryindexes

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Basics
1. Start with an ERD
2. Define your access patterns
3. Design your primary key & secondary indexes

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Forget your relational experience
• Normalization
• JOINs
• One entity type per table

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Setup
• Ecommerce store
• Users make orders
• An order may have many items

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1. Create your ERD

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Ecommerce store

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2. Define your access patterns

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Identify access patterns
1. Get user profile
2. Get orders for user
3. Get single order and order items
4. Get orders for user by status
5. Get open orders

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3. Design your primary keys & secondary indexes

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address
Order
Order item

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Denormalization + document types

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address N/A N/A
Order
Order item

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One-to-many: Sort keys

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address N/A N/A
Order USER#<username> ORDER#<orderId>
Order item

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address N/A N/A
Order USER#<username> ORDER#<orderId>
Order item

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Query:
“PK = USER#alexdebrie AND BEGINS_WITH(SK, ‘ORDER#’)”

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One-to-many: Sort keys
“PK = USER#alexdebrie AND BEGINS_WITH(SK, ‘ORDER#’)”

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address N/A N/A
Order USER#<username> ORDER#<orderId>
Order item ITEM#<itemId> ORDER#<orderId>

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Entities
PK SK
User USER#<username> #PROFILE#<username>
User address N/A N/A
Order USER#<username> ORDER#<orderId>
Order item ITEM#<itemId> ORDER#<orderId>

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Inverted index

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Inverted index

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Inverted index

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One-to-many relationship patterns
1. Attribute (list or map)
2. Primary key + query
3. Secondary index + query

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Filtering
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE USERNAME = ‘alexdebrie’
AND ORDERDATE > GETDATE() - 14

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Query
Must
provide
partition
key
May
provide sort
key
conditions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filter expressions

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE USERNAME = ‘alexdebrie’

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Filtering access patterns
“PK = USER#alexdebrieAND BEGINS_WITH(SK, ‘ORDER#’)”

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Filtering patterns: primary key
“PK = USER#alexdebrieAND BEGINS_WITH(SK, ‘ORDER#’)”

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE USERNAME = ‘alexdebrie’
AND STATUS = ‘SHIPPED’

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Filtering access pattern

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Filtering access pattern

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Filtering access pattern

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Filtering patterns: composite sort key

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE USERNAME = ‘alexdebrie’
AND STATUS = ‘SHIPPED’

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Filtering patterns: Composite sort key
“PK = USER#alexdebrieAND BEGINS_WITH(OrderStatusDate, ‘SHIPPED#’)”

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Filtering patterns: Composite sort key
“PK = USER#alexdebrieAND BEGINS_WITH(OrderStatusDate, ‘SHIPPED#’)”

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders

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Filtering access patterns
1. Get orders for user
2. Get orders by status for user
3. Get open orders
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE STATUS = ‘PLACED’

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Filteringaccess patterns: Sparse index

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Filteringaccess patterns: Sparse index

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Filteringaccess patterns: Sparse index

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Filtering patterns
1. Primary key
2. Composite sort key
3. Sparse index

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Thank you!
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Alex DeBrie
@alexbdebrie
alexdebrie.com