Using the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon DynamoDB in PyCharm

The CData ODBC Drivers can be used in any environment that supports loading an ODBC Driver. In this tutorial we will explore using the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon DynamoDB from within PyCharm. Included are steps for adding the CData ODBC Driver as a data source, as well as basic PyCharm code to query the data source and display results.

To begin, this tutorial will assume that you have already installed the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon DynamoDB as well as PyCharm.

Add Pyodbc to the Project

Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.

1. Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
2. Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
3. To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
4. Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to Amazon DynamoDB

You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. See the Getting Started section in the CData driver documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on your OS.

The connection to Amazon DynamoDB is made using your AccessKey, SecretKey, and optionally your Domain and Region. Your AccessKey and SecretKey can be obtained on the security credentials page for your Amazon Web Services account. Your Region will be displayed in the upper left-hand corner when you are logged into DynamoDB.

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

[CData AmazonDynamoDB Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Amazon DynamoDB
Description = My Description
Access Key = xxx
Secret Key = xxx
Domain = amazonaws.com
Region = OREGON

Execute SQL to Amazon DynamoDB

Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.

import pyodbc

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for AmazonDynamoDB};Access Key = xxx;Secret Key = xxx;Domain = amazonaws.com;Region = OREGON;')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT Industry, Revenue FROM Lead WHERE FirstName = 'Bob'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
 print(row.Industry, row.Revenue)

After connecting to Amazon DynamoDB in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to Amazon DynamoDB data as if it were a standard database. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this tutorial, please contact us at [email protected].