aws_dynamodb_table_item does not work if one of the field contains a hyphen

[thelo-gaultier]

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Terraform Version

Terraform v0.11.14

• provider.aws v2.31.0

Affected Resource(s)

• aws_dynamodb_table_item

Terraform Configuration Files

resource "aws_dynamodb_table" "dynamodb_table" {
  name            = "test-table"
  hash_key        = "name"

  billing_mode    = "PAY_PER_REQUEST"

  attribute {
    name = "name"
    type = "S"
  }
}

resource "aws_dynamodb_table_item" "item" {
  table_name = "${aws_dynamodb_table.dynamodb_table.name}"
  hash_key   = "${aws_dynamodb_table.dynamodb_table.hash_key}"

  item = <<ITEM
{
  "name":     {"S": "main"},
  "label":    {"S": "Main"}
}
ITEM
}

resource "aws_dynamodb_table_item" "item_2" {
  table_name = "${aws_dynamodb_table.dynamodb_table.name}"
  hash_key   = "${aws_dynamodb_table.dynamodb_table.hash_key}"

  item = <<ITEM
{
  "label-fail":    {"S": "Main"},
  "name":     {"S": "main2"}
}
ITEM
}

Debug Output

https://gist.github.com/thelo-gaultier/d540ff24beebadca969d9db454ca8f4d

Expected Behavior

the item_2should be created successfully

Actual Behavior

Terraform throw this exception

Error: Error applying plan:

1 error occurred:
	* aws_dynamodb_table_item.item_2: 1 error occurred:
	* aws_dynamodb_table_item.item_2: Error retrieving DynamoDB table item: ValidationException: ExpressionAttributeNames contains invalid key: Syntax error; key: "#a_label-fail"
	status code: 400, request id: R9OU92P3E8G8G0GRT7954PSSGJVV4KQNSO5AEMVJF66Q9ASUAAJG

Steps to Reproduce

1. terraform apply

References

Dynamo offers expression projection to solve this problem, however this does not seem to be available in the current terraform provider documentation

[edwardofclt]

Similar situation when the key contains a /

Error: Error retrieving DynamoDB table item: ValidationException: ExpressionAttributeNames contains invalid key: Syntax error; key: "#a_#/test"
        status code: 400, request id: 6HARTQCVK3K2FB15D15LL9GG6VVV4KQNSO5AEMVJF66Q9ASUAAJG

[opub]

FYI this bug happens when evaluating the state of aws_dynamodb_table_item. So once you have a aws_dynamodb_table_item resource in your state with one of the bad cases above it can't be fixed without manually clearing that out. I just spent hours recreating my table, renaming attributes, changing attribute values, completely removing any references to aws_dynamodb_table_item, etc. all of which had no impact since the bad values were cached in my S3 state file.

[yermulnik]

Same here 😢

│ Error: Error retrieving DynamoDB table item: ValidationException: ExpressionAttributeNames contains invalid key: Syntax error; key: "#a_s3.storage"
│       status code: 400, request id: 5H680R0K4RDMKE95D6FJN7C90BVV4KQNSO5AEMVJF66Q9ASUAAJG

Added +1 to #14075

[github-actions]

This functionality has been released in v4.9.0 of the Terraform AWS Provider. Please see the Terraform documentation on provider versioning or reach out if you need any assistance upgrading.

For further feature requests or bug reports with this functionality, please create a new GitHub issue following the template. Thank you!

[github-actions]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.
If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.