DynamoDB putting item using AWS CLI

Question

I am trying the AWS CLI with local DynamoDB.

While I was working, I found some issues.

Inserting & Retrieving Items | DynamoDB, explained. shows how to create a table using JSON format. But it didn't work for me. So I had to use Basic Operations for Tables - Amazon DynamoDB. Anyways, it worked.

But what was the trouble was when putting an item.

I tried to add item to the local db like this:

aws dynamodb put-item \
    --table-name UsersTable \
    --item '{
      "Username": {"S": "alexdebrie"}
    }' \
    --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000

But there was an error like this:

Unknown options: {S:, alexdebrie}, }', Username:

How can I handle this?

PS: I am using Windows so instead of \, I used ^.

Error you see is apparently a formatting error. Did you try it without using escaping characters in a single string? — A.Khan

jarmod jarmod · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-05T18:35:15

Here is an one-line example that works on Windows:

aws dynamodb put-item --table-name test --item "{\"id\":{\"S\":\"mars\"},\"miles\":{\"N\":\"999\"}}"

So, in your case:

aws dynamodb put-item --table-name UsersTable --item "{\"Username\":{\"S\":\"alexdebrie\"}}" --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000

A few things to note:

try to avoid multiple lines in your command
include the entire item in double-quotes
precede every double-quote within the item with a backslash e.g. \"id\"
if your attribute value is numeric, you must still quote its value for example \"N\":\"999\"

I feel your pain. It's horrible.

You might want to also consider supplying parameters in a JSON file using --cli-input-json

DynamoDB putting item using AWS CLI

5 Answers