Empty a DynamoDB table with boto

Question

How can I optimally (in terms financial cost) empty a DynamoDB table with boto? (as we can do in SQL with a truncate statement.)

boto.dynamodb2.table.delete() or boto.dynamodb2.layer1.DynamoDBConnection.delete_table() deletes the entire table, while boto.dynamodb2.table.delete_item() boto.dynamodb2.table.BatchTable.delete_item() only deletes the specified items.

Answer 1

As Johnny Wu mentioned, deleting a table and re-creating it is more efficient than deleting individual items. You should make sure your code doesn't try to create a new table before it is completely deleted.

def deleteTable(table_name):
    print('deleting table')
    return client.delete_table(TableName=table_name)


def createTable(table_name):
    waiter = client.get_waiter('table_not_exists')
    waiter.wait(TableName=table_name)
    print('creating table')
    table = dynamodb.create_table(
        TableName=table_name,
        KeySchema=[
            {
                'AttributeName': 'YOURATTRIBUTENAME',
                'KeyType': 'HASH'
            }
        ],
        AttributeDefinitions= [
            {
                'AttributeName': 'YOURATTRIBUTENAME',
                'AttributeType': 'S'
            }
        ],
        ProvisionedThroughput={
            'ReadCapacityUnits': 1,
            'WriteCapacityUnits': 1
        },
        StreamSpecification={
            'StreamEnabled': False
        }
    )


def emptyTable(table_name):
    deleteTable(table_name)
    createTable(table_name)