Navigation Guide
You are on a Command (operation) page with structural examples. Use the navigation breadcrumb if you would like to return to the Client landing page.

GetItemCommand

The GetItem operation returns a set of attributes for the item with the given primary key. If there is no matching item, GetItem does not return any data and there will be no Item element in the response.

GetItem provides an eventually consistent read by default. If your application requires a strongly consistent read, set ConsistentRead to true. Although a strongly consistent read might take more time than an eventually consistent read, it always returns the last updated value.

Example Syntax

Use a bare-bones client and the command you need to make an API call.

import { DynamoDBClient, GetItemCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb"; // ES Modules import
// const { DynamoDBClient, GetItemCommand } = require("@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb"); // CommonJS import
const client = new DynamoDBClient(config);
const input = { // GetItemInput
  TableName: "STRING_VALUE", // required
  Key: { // Key // required
    "<keys>": { // AttributeValue Union: only one key present
      S: "STRING_VALUE",
      N: "STRING_VALUE",
      B: new Uint8Array(), // e.g. Buffer.from("") or new TextEncoder().encode("")
      SS: [ // StringSetAttributeValue
        "STRING_VALUE",
      ],
      NS: [ // NumberSetAttributeValue
        "STRING_VALUE",
      ],
      BS: [ // BinarySetAttributeValue
        new Uint8Array(), // e.g. Buffer.from("") or new TextEncoder().encode("")
      ],
      M: { // MapAttributeValue
        "<keys>": {//  Union: only one key present
          S: "STRING_VALUE",
          N: "STRING_VALUE",
          B: new Uint8Array(), // e.g. Buffer.from("") or new TextEncoder().encode("")
          SS: [
            "STRING_VALUE",
          ],
          NS: [
            "STRING_VALUE",
          ],
          BS: [
            new Uint8Array(), // e.g. Buffer.from("") or new TextEncoder().encode("")
          ],
          M: {
            "<keys>": "<AttributeValue>",
          },
          L: [ // ListAttributeValue
            "<AttributeValue>",
          ],
          NULL: true || false,
          BOOL: true || false,
        },
      },
      L: [
        "<AttributeValue>",
      ],
      NULL: true || false,
      BOOL: true || false,
    },
  },
  AttributesToGet: [ // AttributeNameList
    "STRING_VALUE",
  ],
  ConsistentRead: true || false,
  ReturnConsumedCapacity: "INDEXES" || "TOTAL" || "NONE",
  ProjectionExpression: "STRING_VALUE",
  ExpressionAttributeNames: { // ExpressionAttributeNameMap
    "<keys>": "STRING_VALUE",
  },
};
const command = new GetItemCommand(input);
const response = await client.send(command);
// { // GetItemOutput
//   Item: { // AttributeMap
//     "<keys>": { // AttributeValue Union: only one key present
//       S: "STRING_VALUE",
//       N: "STRING_VALUE",
//       B: new Uint8Array(),
//       SS: [ // StringSetAttributeValue
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       NS: [ // NumberSetAttributeValue
//         "STRING_VALUE",
//       ],
//       BS: [ // BinarySetAttributeValue
//         new Uint8Array(),
//       ],
//       M: { // MapAttributeValue
//         "<keys>": {//  Union: only one key present
//           S: "STRING_VALUE",
//           N: "STRING_VALUE",
//           B: new Uint8Array(),
//           SS: [
//             "STRING_VALUE",
//           ],
//           NS: [
//             "STRING_VALUE",
//           ],
//           BS: [
//             new Uint8Array(),
//           ],
//           M: {
//             "<keys>": "<AttributeValue>",
//           },
//           L: [ // ListAttributeValue
//             "<AttributeValue>",
//           ],
//           NULL: true || false,
//           BOOL: true || false,
//         },
//       },
//       L: [
//         "<AttributeValue>",
//       ],
//       NULL: true || false,
//       BOOL: true || false,
//     },
//   },
//   ConsumedCapacity: { // ConsumedCapacity
//     TableName: "STRING_VALUE",
//     CapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//     ReadCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//     WriteCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//     Table: { // Capacity
//       ReadCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//       WriteCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//       CapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//     },
//     LocalSecondaryIndexes: { // SecondaryIndexesCapacityMap
//       "<keys>": {
//         ReadCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//         WriteCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//         CapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//       },
//     },
//     GlobalSecondaryIndexes: {
//       "<keys>": {
//         ReadCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//         WriteCapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//         CapacityUnits: Number("double"),
//       },
//     },
//   },
// };

Example Usage

Loading code editor

GetItemCommand Input

See GetItemCommandInput for more details

Parameter	Type	Description
`Key` Required	`Record<string, AttributeValue> \| undefined`	A map of attribute names to `AttributeValue` objects, representing the primary key of the item to retrieve. For the primary key, you must provide all of the attributes. For example, with a simple primary key, you only need to provide a value for the partition key. For a composite primary key, you must provide values for both the partition key and the sort key.
`TableName` Required	`string \| undefined`	The name of the table containing the requested item. You can also provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the table in this parameter.
`AttributesToGet`	`string[] \| undefined`	This is a legacy parameter. Use `ProjectionExpression` instead. For more information, see AttributesToGet in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.
`ConsistentRead`	`boolean \| undefined`	Determines the read consistency model: If set to `true`, then the operation uses strongly consistent reads; otherwise, the operation uses eventually consistent reads.
`ExpressionAttributeNames`	`Record<string, string> \| undefined`	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` 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.
`ProjectionExpression`	`string \| undefined`	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 are returned. If any of the requested attributes are not found, they do not appear in the result. For more information, see Specifying Item Attributes in the Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide.
`ReturnConsumedCapacity`	`ReturnConsumedCapacity \| undefined`	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.

GetItemCommand Output

See GetItemCommandOutput for details

Parameter	Type	Description
`$metadata` Required	`ResponseMetadata`	Metadata pertaining to this request.
`ConsumedCapacity`	`ConsumedCapacity \| undefined`	The capacity units consumed by the `GetItem` 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.
`Item`	`Record<string, AttributeValue> \| undefined`	A map of attribute names to `AttributeValue` objects, as specified by `ProjectionExpression`.

Throws

Name	Fault	Details
InternalServerError	server	An error occurred on the server side.
InvalidEndpointException	client
ProvisionedThroughputExceededException	client	Your request rate is too high. The Amazon Web Services 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.
RequestLimitExceeded	client	Throughput exceeds the current throughput quota for your account. Please contact Amazon Web ServicesSupport to request a quota increase.
ResourceNotFoundException	client	The operation tried to access a nonexistent table or index. The resource might not be specified correctly, or its status might not be `ACTIVE`.
DynamoDBServiceException		Base exception class for all service exceptions from DynamoDB service.

Getting Started

References