DynamoDB DataModel Enum Support

In version 3.1.1 of the DynamoDB .NET SDK package, we added enum support to the Object Persistence Model. This feature allows you to use enums in .NET objects you store and load in DynamoDB. Before this change, the only way to support enums in your objects was to use a custom converter to serialize and deserialize the enums, storing them either as string or numeric representations. With this change, you can use enums directly, without having to implement a custom converter. The following two code samples show an example of this:

Definitions:

[DynamoDBTable("Books")]
public class Book
{
    [DynamoDBHashKey]
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public List Authors { get; set; }
    public EditionTypes Editions { get; set; }
}
[Flags]
public enum EditionTypes
{
    None      = 0,
    Paperback = 1,
    Hardcover = 2,
    Digital   = 4,
}

Using enums:

var client = new AmazonDynamoDBClient();
DynamoDBContext context = new DynamoDBContext(client);

// Store item
Book book = new Book
{
    Title = "Cryptonomicon",
    Authors = new List { "Neal Stephenson" },
    Editions = EditionTypes.Paperback | EditionTypes.Digital
};
context.Save(book);

// Get item
book = context.Load("Cryptonomicon");
Console.WriteLine("Title = {0}", book.Title);
Console.WriteLine("Authors = {0}", string.Join(", ", book.Authors));
Console.WriteLine("Editions = {0}", book.Editions);

Custom Converters

With OPM enum support, enums are stored as their numeric representations in DynamoDB. (The default underlying type is int, but you can change it, as described in this MSDN article.) If you were previously working with enums by using a custom converter, you may now be able to remove it and use this new support, depending on how your converter was implemented:

• If your converter stored the enum into its corresponding numeric value, this is the same logic we use, so you can remove it.
• If your converter turned the enum into a string (if you use ToString and Parse), you can discontinue the use of a custom converter as long as you do this for all of the clients. This feature is able to convert strings to enums when reading data from DynamoDB, but will always save an enum as its numeric representation. This means that if you load an item with a “string” enum, and then save it to DynamoDB, the enum will now be “numeric.” As long as all clients are updated to use the latest SDK, the transition should be seamless.
• If your converter worked with strings and you depend on them elsewhere (for example, queries or scans that depend on the string representation), continue to use your current converter.

Enum changes

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind the fact that enums are stored as their numeric representations because updates to the enum can create problems with existing data and code. If you modify an enum in version B of an application, but have version A data or clients, it’s possible some of your clients may not be able to properly handle the newer version of the enum values. Even something as simple as reorganizing the enum values can lead to some very hard-to-identify bugs. This MSDN blog post provides some very good advice to keep in mind when designing an enum.