**Example 1: To read an item in a table** The following ``get-item`` example retrieves an item from the ``MusicCollection`` table. The table has a hash-and-range primary key (``Artist`` and ``SongTitle``), so you must specify both of these attributes. The command also requests information about the read capacity consumed by the operation. :: aws dynamodb get-item \ --table-name MusicCollection \ --key file://key.json \ --return-consumed-capacity TOTAL Contents of ``key.json``:: { "Artist": {"S": "Acme Band"}, "SongTitle": {"S": "Happy Day"} } Output:: { "Item": { "AlbumTitle": { "S": "Songs About Life" }, "SongTitle": { "S": "Happy Day" }, "Artist": { "S": "Acme Band" } }, "ConsumedCapacity": { "TableName": "MusicCollection", "CapacityUnits": 0.5 } } For more information, see `Reading an Item <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/WorkingWithItems.html#WorkingWithItems.ReadingData>`__ in the *Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide*. **Example 2: To read an item using a consistent read** The following example retrieves an item from the ``MusicCollection`` table using strongly consistent reads. :: aws dynamodb get-item \ --table-name MusicCollection \ --key file://key.json \ --consistent-read \ --return-consumed-capacity TOTAL Contents of ``key.json``:: { "Artist": {"S": "Acme Band"}, "SongTitle": {"S": "Happy Day"} } Output:: { "Item": { "AlbumTitle": { "S": "Songs About Life" }, "SongTitle": { "S": "Happy Day" }, "Artist": { "S": "Acme Band" } }, "ConsumedCapacity": { "TableName": "MusicCollection", "CapacityUnits": 1.0 } } For more information, see `Reading an Item <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/WorkingWithItems.html#WorkingWithItems.ReadingData>`__ in the *Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide*. **Example 3: To retrieve specific attributes of an item** The following example uses a projection expression to retrieve only three attributes of the desired item. :: aws dynamodb get-item \ --table-name ProductCatalog \ --key '{"Id": {"N": "102"}}' \ --projection-expression "#T, #C, #P" \ --expression-attribute-names file://names.json Contents of ``names.json``:: { "#T": "Title", "#C": "ProductCategory", "#P": "Price" } Output:: { "Item": { "Price": { "N": "20" }, "Title": { "S": "Book 102 Title" }, "ProductCategory": { "S": "Book" } } } For more information, see `Reading an Item <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/WorkingWithItems.html#WorkingWithItems.ReadingData>`__ in the *Amazon DynamoDB Developer Guide*.