# Preserve empty objects with `@DynamoDbPreserveEmptyObject`
<a name="ddb-en-client-adv-features-empty"></a>

If you save a bean to Amazon DynamoDB with empty objects and you want the SDK to recreate the empty objects upon retrieval, annotate the getter of the inner bean with `@DynamoDbPreserveEmptyObject`.

To illustrate how the annotation works, the code example uses the following two beans.

## Example beans
<a name="ddb-en-client-adv-features-empty-ex1"></a>

The following data class contains two `InnerBean` fields. The getter method, `getInnerBeanWithoutAnno()`, is not annotated with `@DynamoDbPreserveEmptyObject`. The `getInnerBeanWithAnno()` method is annotated.

```
@DynamoDbBean
public class MyBean {

    private String id;
    private String name;
    private InnerBean innerBeanWithoutAnno;
    private InnerBean innerBeanWithAnno;

    @DynamoDbPartitionKey
    public String getId() { return id; }
    public void setId(String id) { this.id = id; }

    public String getName() { return name; }
    public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; }

    public InnerBean getInnerBeanWithoutAnno() { return innerBeanWithoutAnno; }
    public void setInnerBeanWithoutAnno(InnerBean innerBeanWithoutAnno) { this.innerBeanWithoutAnno = innerBeanWithoutAnno; }

    @DynamoDbPreserveEmptyObject
    public InnerBean getInnerBeanWithAnno() { return innerBeanWithAnno; }
    public void setInnerBeanWithAnno(InnerBean innerBeanWithAnno) { this.innerBeanWithAnno = innerBeanWithAnno; }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return new StringJoiner(", ", MyBean.class.getSimpleName() + "[", "]")
                .add("innerBeanWithoutAnno=" + innerBeanWithoutAnno)
                .add("innerBeanWithAnno=" + innerBeanWithAnno)
                .add("id='" + id + "'")
                .add("name='" + name + "'")
                .toString();
    }
}
```

Instances of the following `InnerBean` class are fields of `MyBean` and are initialized as empty objects in the example code.

```
@DynamoDbBean
public class InnerBean {

    private String innerBeanField;

    public String getInnerBeanField() {
        return innerBeanField;
    }

    public void setInnerBeanField(String innerBeanField) {
        this.innerBeanField = innerBeanField;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "InnerBean{" +
                "innerBeanField='" + innerBeanField + '\'' +
                '}';
    }
}
```

The following code example saves a `MyBean` object with initialized inner beans to DynamoDB and then retrieves the item. The logged output shows that the `innerBeanWithoutAnno` is not initialized, but `innerBeanWithAnno` has been created.

```
    public MyBean preserveEmptyObjectAnnoUsingGetItemExample(DynamoDbTable<MyBean> myBeanTable) {
        // Save an item to DynamoDB.
        MyBean bean = new MyBean();
        bean.setId("1");
        bean.setInnerBeanWithoutAnno(new InnerBean());   // Instantiate the inner bean.
        bean.setInnerBeanWithAnno(new InnerBean());      // Instantiate the inner bean.
        myBeanTable.putItem(bean);

        GetItemEnhancedRequest request = GetItemEnhancedRequest.builder()
                .key(Key.builder().partitionValue("1").build())
                .build();
        MyBean myBean = myBeanTable.getItem(request);

        logger.info(myBean.toString());
        // Output 'MyBean[innerBeanWithoutAnno=null, innerBeanWithAnno=InnerBean{innerBeanField='null'}, id='1', name='null']'.

        return myBean;
    }
```

## Alternative static schema
<a name="ddb-en-client-adv-features-empty-ex1-static"></a>

You can use the following `StaticTableSchema` version of the table schemas in place of the annotations on the beans.

```
    public static TableSchema<MyBean> buildStaticSchemas() {

        StaticTableSchema<InnerBean> innerBeanStaticTableSchema =
                StaticTableSchema.builder(InnerBean.class)
                        .newItemSupplier(InnerBean::new)
                        .addAttribute(String.class, a -> a.name("innerBeanField")
                                .getter(InnerBean::getInnerBeanField)
                                .setter(InnerBean::setInnerBeanField))
                        .build();

        return StaticTableSchema.builder(MyBean.class)
                .newItemSupplier(MyBean::new)
                .addAttribute(String.class, a -> a.name("id")
                        .getter(MyBean::getId)
                        .setter(MyBean::setId)
                        .addTag(primaryPartitionKey()))
                .addAttribute(String.class, a -> a.name("name")
                        .getter(MyBean::getName)
                        .setter(MyBean::setName))
                .addAttribute(EnhancedType.documentOf(InnerBean.class,
                                innerBeanStaticTableSchema),
                        a -> a.name("innerBean1")
                                .getter(MyBean::getInnerBeanWithoutAnno)
                                .setter(MyBean::setInnerBeanWithoutAnno))
                .addAttribute(EnhancedType.documentOf(InnerBean.class,
                                innerBeanStaticTableSchema,
                                b -> b.preserveEmptyObject(true)),
                        a -> a.name("innerBean2")
                                .getter(MyBean::getInnerBeanWithAnno)
                                .setter(MyBean::setInnerBeanWithAnno))
                .build();
    }
```