Can we have our own schema in Dynamo DB ?

Question

I want to have a fixed schema in DynamoDB, even though it's a NoSQL database. I want to define specific column names beforehand so that whenever I add data to the database, the column names will be visible. How can I achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately DynamoDB does not provide out of the box capability to define a strict schema. You must impose schema validation on the client side, ensuring users add the desired fields for every mutation.

As you mention, DynamoDB is a NoSQL schemaless database, which means you must only define the keys up-front. Your application code would be responsible for ensuring all the items follow a strict schema, and can do so by setting empty values for those attributes.

Answer

Yes, you can have null values for attributes with some qualifications around indexes. See: [Amazon DynamoDB now supports empty values for non-key String and Binary attributes in DynamoDB tables](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/05/amazon-dynamodb-now-supports-empty-values-for-non-key-string-and-binary-attributes-in-dynamodb-tables/).

Can we have our own schema in Dynamo DB ?

Relevant content