Creating a table in the AWS CLI
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Updated at April 24, 2026
AWS CLI
Warning
To work with the AWS CLI on Windows, we recommend using the WSL
If you do not have the AWS CLI yet, install and configure it.
To create a series table with a series number partition key and a series title sort key:
-
Prepare the Document API endpoint and specify it:
endpoint=<your_DB_endpoint> -
Run this command:
aws dynamodb create-table \ --table-name <table_name> \ --attribute-definitions \ AttributeName=<series_number>,AttributeType=N \ AttributeName=<series_title>,AttributeType=S \ AttributeName=<series_description>,AttributeType=S \ AttributeName=<series_release_date>,AttributeType=S \ --key-schema \ AttributeName=<series_number>,KeyType=HASH \ AttributeName=<series_title>,KeyType=RANGE \ --endpoint $endpointWhere:
--table-name: Table name.--attribute-definitions: Description of item attributes, consisting ofAttributeNameandAttributeType, which can be:N:NumberS:StringB:Binary
--key-schema: Key schema for the table, whereAttributeNameis the key attribute name, andKeyTypecan be:HASH: Partition key.RANGE: Sort key.
The
key-schemaattributes should also be defined in theattribute-definitionsarray.
Example
To create a table named series with the series_id partition key and title sort key:
endpoint="your-database-endpoint"
aws dynamodb create-table \
--table-name series \
--attribute-definitions \
AttributeName=series_id,AttributeType=N \
AttributeName=title,AttributeType=S \
AttributeName=series_info,AttributeType=S \
AttributeName=release_date,AttributeType=S \
--key-schema \
AttributeName=series_id,KeyType=HASH \
AttributeName=title,KeyType=RANGE \
--endpoint $endpoint
Result:
{
"TableDescription": {
"AttributeDefinitions": [
{
"AttributeName": "series_id",
"AttributeType": "N"
},
{
"AttributeName": "title",
"AttributeType": "S"
},
{
"AttributeName": "series_info",
"AttributeType": "S"
},
{
"AttributeName": "release_date",
"AttributeType": "S"
}
],
"TableName": "series",
"KeySchema": [
{
"AttributeName": "series_id",
"KeyType": "HASH"
},
{
"AttributeName": "title",
"KeyType": "RANGE"
}
],
"TableStatus": "ACTIVE",
"CreationDateTime": "2020-12-27T13:21:10+00:00",
"TableSizeBytes": 0,
"ItemCount": 0
}
}