Working with Local Secondary Indexes: Java

You can use the AWS SDK for Java Document API to create an Amazon DynamoDB table with one or more local secondary indexes, describe the indexes on the table, and perform queries using the indexes.

The following are the common steps for table operations using the AWS SDK for Java Document API.

Create a table with a Local Secondary Index

Local secondary indexes must be created at the same time you create a table. To do this, use the createTable method and provide your specifications for one or more local secondary indexes. The following Java code example creates a table to hold information about songs in a music collection. The partition key is Artist and the sort key is SongTitle. A secondary index, AlbumTitleIndex, facilitates queries by album title.

The following are the steps to create a table with a local secondary index, using the DynamoDB document API.

The following Java code example demonstrates the preceding steps. The code creates a table (Music) with a secondary index on the AlbumTitle attribute. The table partition key and sort key, plus the index sort key, are the only attributes projected into the index.

AmazonDynamoDB client = AmazonDynamoDBClientBuilder.standard().build();
DynamoDB dynamoDB = new DynamoDB(client);

String tableName = "Music";

CreateTableRequest createTableRequest = new CreateTableRequest().withTableName(tableName);

//ProvisionedThroughput
createTableRequest.setProvisionedThroughput(new ProvisionedThroughput().withReadCapacityUnits((long)5).withWriteCapacityUnits((long)5));

//AttributeDefinitions
ArrayList<AttributeDefinition> attributeDefinitions= new ArrayList<AttributeDefinition>();
attributeDefinitions.add(new AttributeDefinition().withAttributeName("Artist").withAttributeType("S"));
attributeDefinitions.add(new AttributeDefinition().withAttributeName("SongTitle").withAttributeType("S"));
attributeDefinitions.add(new AttributeDefinition().withAttributeName("AlbumTitle").withAttributeType("S"));

createTableRequest.setAttributeDefinitions(attributeDefinitions);

//KeySchema
ArrayList<KeySchemaElement> tableKeySchema = new ArrayList<KeySchemaElement>();
tableKeySchema.add(new KeySchemaElement().withAttributeName("Artist").withKeyType(KeyType.HASH));  //Partition key
tableKeySchema.add(new KeySchemaElement().withAttributeName("SongTitle").withKeyType(KeyType.RANGE));  //Sort key

createTableRequest.setKeySchema(tableKeySchema);

ArrayList<KeySchemaElement> indexKeySchema = new ArrayList<KeySchemaElement>();
indexKeySchema.add(new KeySchemaElement().withAttributeName("Artist").withKeyType(KeyType.HASH));  //Partition key
indexKeySchema.add(new KeySchemaElement().withAttributeName("AlbumTitle").withKeyType(KeyType.RANGE));  //Sort key

Projection projection = new Projection().withProjectionType(ProjectionType.INCLUDE);
ArrayList<String> nonKeyAttributes = new ArrayList<String>();
nonKeyAttributes.add("Genre");
nonKeyAttributes.add("Year");
projection.setNonKeyAttributes(nonKeyAttributes);

LocalSecondaryIndex localSecondaryIndex = new LocalSecondaryIndex()
    .withIndexName("AlbumTitleIndex").withKeySchema(indexKeySchema).withProjection(projection);

ArrayList<LocalSecondaryIndex> localSecondaryIndexes = new ArrayList<LocalSecondaryIndex>();
localSecondaryIndexes.add(localSecondaryIndex);
createTableRequest.setLocalSecondaryIndexes(localSecondaryIndexes);

Table table = dynamoDB.createTable(createTableRequest);
System.out.println(table.getDescription());

You must wait until DynamoDB creates the table and sets the table status to ACTIVE. After that, you can begin putting data items into the table.

Describe a table with a Local Secondary Index

To get information about local secondary indexes on a table, use the describeTable method. For each index, you can access its name, key schema, and projected attributes.

The following are the steps to access local secondary index information of a table using the AWS SDK for Java Document API.

The following Java code example demonstrates the preceding steps.

AmazonDynamoDB client = AmazonDynamoDBClientBuilder.standard().build();
DynamoDB dynamoDB = new DynamoDB(client);

String tableName = "Music";

Table table = dynamoDB.getTable(tableName);

TableDescription tableDescription = table.describe();

List<LocalSecondaryIndexDescription> localSecondaryIndexes 
    = tableDescription.getLocalSecondaryIndexes();

// This code snippet will work for multiple indexes, even though
// there is only one index in this example.

Iterator<LocalSecondaryIndexDescription> lsiIter = localSecondaryIndexes.iterator();
while (lsiIter.hasNext()) {

    LocalSecondaryIndexDescription lsiDescription = lsiIter.next();
    System.out.println("Info for index " + lsiDescription.getIndexName() + ":");
    Iterator<KeySchemaElement> kseIter = lsiDescription.getKeySchema().iterator();
    while (kseIter.hasNext()) {
        KeySchemaElement kse = kseIter.next();
        System.out.printf("\t%s: %s\n", kse.getAttributeName(), kse.getKeyType());
    }
    Projection projection = lsiDescription.getProjection();
    System.out.println("\tThe projection type is: " + projection.getProjectionType());
    if (projection.getProjectionType().toString().equals("INCLUDE")) {
        System.out.println("\t\tThe non-key projected attributes are: " + projection.getNonKeyAttributes());
    }
}

Query a Local Secondary Index

You can use the Query operation on a local secondary index in much the same way that you Query a table. You must specify the index name, the query criteria for the index sort key, and the attributes that you want to return. In this example, the index is AlbumTitleIndex and the index sort key is AlbumTitle.

The only attributes returned are those that have been projected into the index. You could modify this query to select non-key attributes too, but this would require table fetch activity that is relatively expensive. For more information about table fetches, see Attribute projections.

The following are the steps to query a local secondary index using the AWS SDK for Java Document API.

The following Java code example demonstrates the preceding steps.

AmazonDynamoDB client = AmazonDynamoDBClientBuilder.standard().build();
DynamoDB dynamoDB = new DynamoDB(client);

String tableName = "Music";

Table table = dynamoDB.getTable(tableName);
Index index = table.getIndex("AlbumTitleIndex");

QuerySpec spec = new QuerySpec()
    .withKeyConditionExpression("Artist = :v_artist and AlbumTitle = :v_title")
    .withValueMap(new ValueMap()
        .withString(":v_artist", "Acme Band")
        .withString(":v_title", "Songs About Life"));

ItemCollection<QueryOutcome> items = index.query(spec);

Iterator<Item> itemsIter = items.iterator();

while (itemsIter.hasNext()) {
    Item item = itemsIter.next();
    System.out.println(item.toJSONPretty());
}