Clear all data from a DynamoDB table without deleting it

Question

How can I clear all items from a DynamoDb table without deleting and recreating the table? The table is created/defined using CloudFormation so I don't want to duplicate that concern in business code.

I'm using TypeScript/NodeJs.

This question says to scan every item, chunk into blocks of 25, then delete each item using BatchWrite, however:

• It seems like I'm writing a lot of code do something that's presumably quite common.
• Scan returns items with their type, which I need to strip out, which involve a copy for every item, so again I'm writing a lot of code do something that's presumably quite common.

Is there a better way? Am I missing something?

Answer 1

Nope, those are your only two options:

1. delete and recreate the table
2. (Batch) Delete each item in the table

Why is this needed?

If this really is a "common need" for your application.. Have you considered more ephemeral storage, such as Elasticache?

What about DDB's ability to automatically expire and removed items via TTL functionality?