Request Syntax Request Parameters Response Syntax Response Elements Errors Examples See Also

Query

You must provide the name of the partition key attribute and a single value for that attribute. Query returns all items with that partition key value. Optionally, you can provide a sort key attribute and use a comparison operator to refine the search results.

Use the KeyConditionExpression parameter to provide a specific value for the partition key. The Query operation will return all of the items from the table or index with that partition key value. You can optionally narrow the scope of the Query operation by specifying a sort key value and a comparison operator in KeyConditionExpression. To further refine the Query results, you can optionally provide a FilterExpression. A FilterExpression determines which items within the results should be returned to you. All of the other results are discarded.

A Query operation always returns a result set. If no matching items are found, the result set will be empty. Queries that do not return results consume the minimum number of read capacity units for that type of read operation.

Note

DynamoDB calculates the number of read capacity units consumed based on item size, not on the amount of data that is returned to an application. The number of capacity units consumed will be the same whether you request all of the attributes (the default behavior) or just some of them (using a projection expression). The number will also be the same whether or not you use a FilterExpression.

Query results are always sorted by the sort key value. If the data type of the sort key is Number, the results are returned in numeric order; otherwise, the results are returned in order of UTF-8 bytes. By default, the sort order is ascending. To reverse the order, set the ScanIndexForward parameter to false.

A single Query operation will read up to the maximum number of items set (if using the Limit parameter) or a maximum of 1 MB of data and then apply any filtering to the results using FilterExpression. If LastEvaluatedKey is present in the response, you will need to paginate the result set. For more information, see Paginating the Results in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

FilterExpression is applied after a Query finishes, but before the results are returned. A FilterExpression cannot contain partition key or sort key attributes. You need to specify those attributes in the KeyConditionExpression.

Note

A Query operation can return an empty result set and a LastEvaluatedKey if all the items read for the page of results are filtered out.

You can query a table, a local secondary index, or a global secondary index. For a query on a table or on a local secondary index, you can set the ConsistentRead parameter to true and obtain a strongly consistent result. Global secondary indexes support eventually consistent reads only, so do not specify ConsistentRead when querying a global secondary index.

For additional information on how to use the Query API, please see Working with Queries.

Request Syntax


{
   "AttributesToGet": [ "string" ],
   "ConditionalOperator": "string",
   "ConsistentRead": boolean,
   "ExclusiveStartKey": { 
      "string" : { 
         "B": blob,
         "BOOL": boolean,
         "BS": [ blob ],
         "L": [ 
            "AttributeValue"
         ],
         "M": { 
            "string" : "AttributeValue"
         },
         "N": "string",
         "NS": [ "string" ],
         "NULL": boolean,
         "S": "string",
         "SS": [ "string" ]
      }
   },
   "ExpressionAttributeNames": { 
      "string" : "string" 
   },
   "ExpressionAttributeValues": { 
      "string" : { 
         "B": blob,
         "BOOL": boolean,
         "BS": [ blob ],
         "L": [ 
            "AttributeValue"
         ],
         "M": { 
            "string" : "AttributeValue"
         },
         "N": "string",
         "NS": [ "string" ],
         "NULL": boolean,
         "S": "string",
         "SS": [ "string" ]
      }
   },
   "FilterExpression": "string",
   "IndexName": "string",
   "KeyConditionExpression": "string",
   "KeyConditions": { 
      "string" : { 
         "AttributeValueList": [ 
            { 
               "B": blob,
               "BOOL": boolean,
               "BS": [ blob ],
               "L": [ 
                  "AttributeValue"
               ],
               "M": { 
                  "string" : "AttributeValue"
               },
               "N": "string",
               "NS": [ "string" ],
               "NULL": boolean,
               "S": "string",
               "SS": [ "string" ]
            }
         ],
         "ComparisonOperator": "string"
      }
   },
   "Limit": number,
   "ProjectionExpression": "string",
   "QueryFilter": { 
      "string" : { 
         "AttributeValueList": [ 
            { 
               "B": blob,
               "BOOL": boolean,
               "BS": [ blob ],
               "L": [ 
                  "AttributeValue"
               ],
               "M": { 
                  "string" : "AttributeValue"
               },
               "N": "string",
               "NS": [ "string" ],
               "NULL": boolean,
               "S": "string",
               "SS": [ "string" ]
            }
         ],
         "ComparisonOperator": "string"
      }
   },
   "ReturnConsumedCapacity": "string",
   "ScanIndexForward": boolean,
   "Select": "string",
   "TableName": "string"
}

Request Parameters

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

Note

In the following list, the required parameters are described first.

TableName

The name of the table containing the requested items. You can also provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the table in this parameter.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 1024.

Required: Yes

AttributesToGet

This is a legacy parameter. Use ProjectionExpression instead. For more information, see AttributesToGet in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: Array of strings

Array Members: Minimum number of 1 item.

Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

Required: No

ConditionalOperator

This is a legacy parameter. Use FilterExpression instead. For more information, see ConditionalOperator in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String

Valid Values: AND | OR

Required: No

ConsistentRead

Determines the read consistency model: If set to true, then the operation uses strongly consistent reads; otherwise, the operation uses eventually consistent reads.

Strongly consistent reads are not supported on global secondary indexes. If you query a global secondary index with ConsistentRead set to true, you will receive a ValidationException.

Type: Boolean

Required: No

ExclusiveStartKey

The primary key of the first item that this operation will evaluate. Use the value that was returned for LastEvaluatedKey in the previous operation.

The data type for ExclusiveStartKey must be String, Number, or Binary. No set data types are allowed.

Type: String to AttributeValue object map

Key Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

Required: No

ExpressionAttributeNames

One or more substitution tokens for attribute names in an expression. The following are some use cases for using ExpressionAttributeNames:

To access an attribute whose name conflicts with a DynamoDB reserved word.
To create a placeholder for repeating occurrences of an attribute name in an expression.
To prevent special characters in an attribute name from being misinterpreted in an expression.

Use the # character in an expression to dereference an attribute name. For example, consider the following attribute name:

Percentile

The name of this attribute conflicts with a reserved word, so it cannot be used directly in an expression. (For the complete list of reserved words, see Reserved Words in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide). To work around this, you could specify the following for ExpressionAttributeNames:

{"#P":"Percentile"}

You could then use this substitution in an expression, as in this example:

#P = :val

Note

Tokens that begin with the : character are expression attribute values, which are placeholders for the actual value at runtime.

For more information on expression attribute names, see Specifying Item Attributes in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String to string map

Value Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

Required: No

ExpressionAttributeValues

One or more values that can be substituted in an expression.

Use the : (colon) character in an expression to dereference an attribute value. For example, suppose that you wanted to check whether the value of the ProductStatus attribute was one of the following:

Available | Backordered | Discontinued

You would first need to specify ExpressionAttributeValues as follows:

{ ":avail":{"S":"Available"}, ":back":{"S":"Backordered"}, ":disc":{"S":"Discontinued"} }

You could then use these values in an expression, such as this:

ProductStatus IN (:avail, :back, :disc)

For more information on expression attribute values, see Specifying Conditions in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String to AttributeValue object map

Required: No

FilterExpression

A string that contains conditions that DynamoDB applies after the Query operation, but before the data is returned to you. Items that do not satisfy the FilterExpression criteria are not returned.

A FilterExpression does not allow key attributes. You cannot define a filter expression based on a partition key or a sort key.

Note

A FilterExpression is applied after the items have already been read; the process of filtering does not consume any additional read capacity units.

For more information, see Filter Expressions in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String

Required: No

IndexName

The name of an index to query. This index can be any local secondary index or global secondary index on the table. Note that if you use the IndexName parameter, you must also provide TableName.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 3. Maximum length of 255.

Pattern: [a-zA-Z0-9_.-]+

Required: No

KeyConditionExpression

The condition that specifies the key values for items to be retrieved by the Query action.

The condition must perform an equality test on a single partition key value.

The condition can optionally perform one of several comparison tests on a single sort key value. This allows Query to retrieve one item with a given partition key value and sort key value, or several items that have the same partition key value but different sort key values.

The partition key equality test is required, and must be specified in the following format:

partitionKeyName = :partitionkeyval

If you also want to provide a condition for the sort key, it must be combined using AND with the condition for the sort key. Following is an example, using the = comparison operator for the sort key:

partitionKeyName = :partitionkeyval AND sortKeyName = :sortkeyval

Valid comparisons for the sort key condition are as follows:

sortKeyName = :sortkeyval - true if the sort key value is equal to :sortkeyval.
sortKeyName < :sortkeyval - true if the sort key value is less than :sortkeyval.
sortKeyName <= :sortkeyval - true if the sort key value is less than or equal to :sortkeyval.
sortKeyName > :sortkeyval - true if the sort key value is greater than :sortkeyval.
sortKeyName >= :sortkeyval - true if the sort key value is greater than or equal to :sortkeyval.
sortKeyName BETWEEN :sortkeyval1 AND :sortkeyval2 - true if the sort key value is greater than or equal to :sortkeyval1, and less than or equal to :sortkeyval2.
begins_with ( sortKeyName, :sortkeyval ) - true if the sort key value begins with a particular operand. (You cannot use this function with a sort key that is of type Number.) Note that the function name begins_with is case-sensitive.

Use the ExpressionAttributeValues parameter to replace tokens such as :partitionval and :sortval with actual values at runtime.

You can optionally use the ExpressionAttributeNames parameter to replace the names of the partition key and sort key with placeholder tokens. This option might be necessary if an attribute name conflicts with a DynamoDB reserved word. For example, the following KeyConditionExpression parameter causes an error because Size is a reserved word:

Size = :myval

To work around this, define a placeholder (such a #S) to represent the attribute name Size. KeyConditionExpression then is as follows:

#S = :myval

For a list of reserved words, see Reserved Words in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

For more information on ExpressionAttributeNames and ExpressionAttributeValues, see Using Placeholders for Attribute Names and Values in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String

Required: No

KeyConditions

This is a legacy parameter. Use KeyConditionExpression instead. For more information, see KeyConditions in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String to Condition object map

Key Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

Required: No

Limit

The maximum number of items to evaluate (not necessarily the number of matching items). If DynamoDB processes the number of items up to the limit while processing the results, it stops the operation and returns the matching values up to that point, and a key in LastEvaluatedKey to apply in a subsequent operation, so that you can pick up where you left off. Also, if the processed dataset size exceeds 1 MB before DynamoDB reaches this limit, it stops the operation and returns the matching values up to the limit, and a key in LastEvaluatedKey to apply in a subsequent operation to continue the operation. For more information, see Query and Scan in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: Integer

Valid Range: Minimum value of 1.

Required: No

ProjectionExpression

A string that identifies one or more attributes to retrieve from the table. These attributes can include scalars, sets, or elements of a JSON document. The attributes in the expression must be separated by commas.

If no attribute names are specified, then all attributes will be returned. If any of the requested attributes are not found, they will not appear in the result.

For more information, see Accessing Item Attributes in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String

Required: No

QueryFilter

This is a legacy parameter. Use FilterExpression instead. For more information, see QueryFilter in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: String to Condition object map

Key Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

Required: No

ReturnConsumedCapacity

Determines the level of detail about either provisioned or on-demand throughput consumption that is returned in the response:

INDEXES - The response includes the aggregate ConsumedCapacity for the operation, together with ConsumedCapacity for each table and secondary index that was accessed.

Note that some operations, such as GetItem and BatchGetItem, do not access any indexes at all. In these cases, specifying INDEXES will only return ConsumedCapacity information for table(s).
TOTAL - The response includes only the aggregate ConsumedCapacity for the operation.
NONE - No ConsumedCapacity details are included in the response.

Type: String

Valid Values: INDEXES | TOTAL | NONE

Required: No

ScanIndexForward

Specifies the order for index traversal: If true (default), the traversal is performed in ascending order; if false, the traversal is performed in descending order.

Items with the same partition key value are stored in sorted order by sort key. If the sort key data type is Number, the results are stored in numeric order. For type String, the results are stored in order of UTF-8 bytes. For type Binary, DynamoDB treats each byte of the binary data as unsigned.

If ScanIndexForward is true, DynamoDB returns the results in the order in which they are stored (by sort key value). This is the default behavior. If ScanIndexForward is false, DynamoDB reads the results in reverse order by sort key value, and then returns the results to the client.

Type: Boolean

Required: No

Select

The attributes to be returned in the result. You can retrieve all item attributes, specific item attributes, the count of matching items, or in the case of an index, some or all of the attributes projected into the index.

ALL_ATTRIBUTES - Returns all of the item attributes from the specified table or index. If you query a local secondary index, then for each matching item in the index, DynamoDB fetches the entire item from the parent table. If the index is configured to project all item attributes, then all of the data can be obtained from the local secondary index, and no fetching is required.
ALL_PROJECTED_ATTRIBUTES - Allowed only when querying an index. Retrieves all attributes that have been projected into the index. If the index is configured to project all attributes, this return value is equivalent to specifying ALL_ATTRIBUTES.
COUNT - Returns the number of matching items, rather than the matching items themselves. Note that this uses the same quantity of read capacity units as getting the items, and is subject to the same item size calculations.
SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES - Returns only the attributes listed in ProjectionExpression. This return value is equivalent to specifying ProjectionExpression without specifying any value for Select.

If you query or scan a local secondary index and request only attributes that are projected into that index, the operation will read only the index and not the table. If any of the requested attributes are not projected into the local secondary index, DynamoDB fetches each of these attributes from the parent table. This extra fetching incurs additional throughput cost and latency.

If you query or scan a global secondary index, you can only request attributes that are projected into the index. Global secondary index queries cannot fetch attributes from the parent table.

If neither Select nor ProjectionExpression are specified, DynamoDB defaults to ALL_ATTRIBUTES when accessing a table, and ALL_PROJECTED_ATTRIBUTES when accessing an index. You cannot use both Select and ProjectionExpression together in a single request, unless the value for Select is SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES. (This usage is equivalent to specifying ProjectionExpression without any value for Select.)

Note

If you use the ProjectionExpression parameter, then the value for Select can only be SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES. Any other value for Select will return an error.

Type: String

Valid Values: ALL_ATTRIBUTES | ALL_PROJECTED_ATTRIBUTES | SPECIFIC_ATTRIBUTES | COUNT

Required: No

Response Syntax


{
   "ConsumedCapacity": { 
      "CapacityUnits": number,
      "GlobalSecondaryIndexes": { 
         "string" : { 
            "CapacityUnits": number,
            "ReadCapacityUnits": number,
            "WriteCapacityUnits": number
         }
      },
      "LocalSecondaryIndexes": { 
         "string" : { 
            "CapacityUnits": number,
            "ReadCapacityUnits": number,
            "WriteCapacityUnits": number
         }
      },
      "ReadCapacityUnits": number,
      "Table": { 
         "CapacityUnits": number,
         "ReadCapacityUnits": number,
         "WriteCapacityUnits": number
      },
      "TableName": "string",
      "WriteCapacityUnits": number
   },
   "Count": number,
   "Items": [ 
      { 
         "string" : { 
            "B": blob,
            "BOOL": boolean,
            "BS": [ blob ],
            "L": [ 
               "AttributeValue"
            ],
            "M": { 
               "string" : "AttributeValue"
            },
            "N": "string",
            "NS": [ "string" ],
            "NULL": boolean,
            "S": "string",
            "SS": [ "string" ]
         }
      }
   ],
   "LastEvaluatedKey": { 
      "string" : { 
         "B": blob,
         "BOOL": boolean,
         "BS": [ blob ],
         "L": [ 
            "AttributeValue"
         ],
         "M": { 
            "string" : "AttributeValue"
         },
         "N": "string",
         "NS": [ "string" ],
         "NULL": boolean,
         "S": "string",
         "SS": [ "string" ]
      }
   },
   "ScannedCount": number
}

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.

ConsumedCapacity

The capacity units consumed by the Query operation. The data returned includes the total provisioned throughput consumed, along with statistics for the table and any indexes involved in the operation. ConsumedCapacity is only returned if the ReturnConsumedCapacity parameter was specified. For more information, see Capacity unit consumption for read operations in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

Type: ConsumedCapacity object

Count

The number of items in the response.

If you used a QueryFilter in the request, then Count is the number of items returned after the filter was applied, and ScannedCount is the number of matching items before the filter was applied.

If you did not use a filter in the request, then Count and ScannedCount are the same.

Type: Integer

Items

An array of item attributes that match the query criteria. Each element in this array consists of an attribute name and the value for that attribute.

Type: Array of string to AttributeValue object maps

Key Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

LastEvaluatedKey

The primary key of the item where the operation stopped, inclusive of the previous result set. Use this value to start a new operation, excluding this value in the new request.

If LastEvaluatedKey is empty, then the "last page" of results has been processed and there is no more data to be retrieved.

If LastEvaluatedKey is not empty, it does not necessarily mean that there is more data in the result set. The only way to know when you have reached the end of the result set is when LastEvaluatedKey is empty.

Type: String to AttributeValue object map

Key Length Constraints: Maximum length of 65535.

ScannedCount

The number of items evaluated, before any QueryFilter is applied. A high ScannedCount value with few, or no, Count results indicates an inefficient Query operation. For more information, see Count and ScannedCount in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

If you did not use a filter in the request, then ScannedCount is the same as Count.

Type: Integer

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

InternalServerError

An error occurred on the server side.

message: The server encountered an internal error trying to fulfill the request.

HTTP Status Code: 500

ProvisionedThroughputExceededException

The request was denied due to request throttling. For detailed information about why the request was throttled and the ARN of the impacted resource, find the ThrottlingReason field in the returned exception. The AWS SDKs for DynamoDB automatically retry requests that receive this exception. Your request is eventually successful, unless your retry queue is too large to finish. Reduce the frequency of requests and use exponential backoff. For more information, go to Error Retries and Exponential Backoff in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.

message: You exceeded your maximum allowed provisioned throughput.
ThrottlingReasons: A list of ThrottlingReason that provide detailed diagnostic information about why the request was throttled.

HTTP Status Code: 400

RequestLimitExceeded

Throughput exceeds the current throughput quota for your account. For detailed information about why the request was throttled and the ARN of the impacted resource, find the ThrottlingReason field in the returned exception. Contact Support to request a quota increase.

ThrottlingReasons: A list of ThrottlingReason that provide detailed diagnostic information about why the request was throttled.

HTTP Status Code: 400

ResourceNotFoundException

The operation tried to access a nonexistent table or index. The resource might not be specified correctly, or its status might not be ACTIVE.

message: The resource which is being requested does not exist.

HTTP Status Code: 400

ThrottlingException

throttlingReasons: A list of ThrottlingReason that provide detailed diagnostic information about why the request was throttled.

HTTP Status Code: 400

Examples

Retrieve a Range of Items

The following example queries the Reply table for replies in a forum that were posted by particular users. There is a local secondary index on the Reply table, PostedBy-Index, to facilitate fast lookups on these attributes.

The ProjectionExpression parameter determines which attributes are returned.

Sample Request


POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: dynamodb.<region>.<domain>;
Accept-Encoding: identity
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
User-Agent: <UserAgentString>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=<Credential>, SignedHeaders=<Headers>, Signature=<Signature>
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
X-Amz-Target: DynamoDB_20120810.Query

{
    "TableName": "Reply",
    "IndexName": "PostedBy-Index",
    "Limit": 3,
    "ConsistentRead": true,
    "ProjectionExpression": "Id, PostedBy, ReplyDateTime",
    "KeyConditionExpression": "Id = :v1 AND PostedBy BETWEEN :v2a AND :v2b",
    "ExpressionAttributeValues": {
        ":v1": {"S": "Amazon DynamoDB#DynamoDB Thread 1"},
        ":v2a": {"S": "User A"},
        ":v2b": {"S": "User C"}
    },
    "ReturnConsumedCapacity": "TOTAL"
}

Sample Response


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-amzn-RequestId: <RequestId>
x-amz-crc32: <Checksum>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Date: <Date>
 {
    "ConsumedCapacity": {
        "CapacityUnits": 1,
        "TableName": "Reply"
    },
    "Count": 2,
    "Items": [
        {
            "ReplyDateTime": {"S": "2015-02-18T20:27:36.165Z"},
            "PostedBy": {"S": "User A"},
            "Id": {"S": "Amazon DynamoDB#DynamoDB Thread 1"}
        },
        {
            "ReplyDateTime": {"S": "2015-02-25T20:27:36.165Z"},
            "PostedBy": {"S": "User B"},
            "Id": {"S": "Amazon DynamoDB#DynamoDB Thread 1"}
        }
    ],
    "ScannedCount": 2
}

Count Items

The following example returns the number of items in the Thread table for a particular forum.

Sample Request


POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: dynamodb.<region>.<domain>;
Accept-Encoding: identity
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
User-Agent: <UserAgentString>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Credential=<Credential>, SignedHeaders=<Headers>, Signature=<Signature>
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
X-Amz-Target: DynamoDB_20120810.Query

{
    "TableName": "Thread",
    "ConsistentRead": true,
    "KeyConditionExpression": "ForumName = :val",
    "ExpressionAttributeValues": {":val": {"S": "Amazon DynamoDB"}}
}

Sample Response


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-amzn-RequestId: <RequestId>
x-amz-crc32: <Checksum>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Date: <Date>
 {
          "Count":2,
          "ScannedCount":2
}