AWS DynamoDB with Python (Boto3) — Part 5 — Bulk Insert & Delete with DynamoDB

Accessing DynamoDB with Python

If you haven’t read the previous article in this series — AWS DynamoDB with Python (Boto3) — Part 4 — Update Attribute & Delete Item from DynamoDB

boto3 client offers support for DynamoDB batch operations via batch_writer() function. Below is the example for bulk insert with DynamoDB

def insert_bulk_student_records(students: list):

    dynamodb = boto3.resource('dynamodb',
                              aws_access_key_id="dummy",
                              aws_secret_access_key="dummy",
                              region_name="local",
                              endpoint_url="http://localhost:8000")

    table = dynamodb.Table('Student')

    with table.batch_writer() as writer:
        for student in students:
            writer.put_item(Item={
                'dept': student.dept,
                'stud_id': student.stud_id,
                'stud_name': student.stud_name,
                'stud_age': student.stud_age,
                'subjects': student.subjects
            })

Similarly for bulk delete, we can use the same batch_writer() function

def delete_bulk_student_records(students: list):

    dynamodb = boto3.resource('dynamodb',
                              aws_access_key_id="dummy",
                              aws_secret_access_key="dummy",
                              region_name="local",
                              endpoint_url="http://localhost:8000")

    table = dynamodb.Table('Student')

    with table.batch_writer() as writer:
        for student in students:
            writer.delete_item(Key={
                'dept': student.dept,
                'stud_id': student.stud_id
            })

Remember, the constrains we discussed in previous article still applies to batch operations as well

We can mix delete_item() & put_item() in a single batch call

Remember, the batch operation as a whole is not atomic in nature.

Meaning, If we try to insert 10 records & 5 insert calls got successful but the 6th one got failed, doesn’t mean the first 5 inserts will be rolled back

Thats all about Bulk Insert & Delete with DynamoDB !

GitHub Repo URL — https://github.com/iamvickyav/dynamodb-with-python-boto3