Example of update_item in dynamodb boto3

Question

Following the documentation, I\'m trying to create an update statement that will update or add if not exists only one attribute in a dynamodb table.

I\'m trying this

Answer 1

Details on dynamodb updates using boto3 seem incredibly sparse online, so I'm hoping these alternative solutions are useful.

get / put

import boto3

table = boto3.resource('dynamodb').Table('my_table')

# get item
response = table.get_item(Key={'pkey': 'asdf12345'})
item = response['Item']

# update
item['status'] = 'complete'

# put (idempotent)
table.put_item(Item=item)

actual update

import boto3

table = boto3.resource('dynamodb').Table('my_table')

table.update_item(
    Key={'pkey': 'asdf12345'},
    AttributeUpdates={
        'status': 'complete',
    },
)