# GetItem
<a name="js-aws-appsync-resolver-reference-dynamodb-getitem"></a>

The `GetItem` request lets you tell the AWS AppSync DynamoDB function to make a `GetItem` request to DynamoDB, and enables you to specify:
+ The key of the item in DynamoDB
+ Whether to use a consistent read or not

The `GetItem` request has the following structure:

```
type DynamoDBGetItem = {
  operation: 'GetItem';
  key: { [key: string]: any };
  consistentRead?: ConsistentRead;
  projection?: {
    expression: string;
    expressionNames?: { [key: string]: string };
  };
};
```

The fields are defined as follows:

## GetItem fields
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### GetItem fields list
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 **`operation`**   
The DynamoDB operation to perform. To perform the `GetItem` DynamoDB operation, this must be set to `GetItem`. This value is required.

 **`key`**   
The key of the item in DynamoDB. DynamoDB items may have a single hash key, or a hash key and sort key, depending on the table structure. For more information about how to specify a “typed value”, see [Type system (request mapping)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/js-resolver-reference-dynamodb.html#js-aws-appsync-resolver-reference-dynamodb-typed-values-request). This value is required.

 **`consistentRead`**   
Whether or not to perform a strongly consistent read with DynamoDB. This is optional, and defaults to `false`.

**`projection`**  
A projection that's used to specify the attributes to return from the DynamoDB operation. For more information about projections, see [Projections](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/js-resolver-reference-dynamodb.html#js-aws-appsync-resolver-reference-dynamodb-projections). This field is optional.

The item returned from DynamoDB is automatically converted into GraphQL and JSON primitive types, and is available in the context result (`context.result`).

For more information about DynamoDB type conversion, see [Type system (response mapping)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/js-resolver-reference-dynamodb.html#js-aws-appsync-resolver-reference-dynamodb-typed-values-responses).

For more information about JavaScript resolvers, see [JavaScript resolvers overview](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/appsync/latest/devguide/resolver-reference-overview-js.html).

## Example
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The following example is a function request handler for a GraphQL query `getThing(foo: String!, bar: String!)`:

```
export function request(ctx) {
  const {foo, bar} = ctx.args
  return {
    operation : "GetItem",
    key : util.dynamodb.toMapValues({foo, bar}),
    consistentRead : true
  }
}
```

For more information about the DynamoDB `GetItem` API, see the [DynamoDB API documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/APIReference/API_GetItem.html).