Question: DynamoDB provides an API for deleting items. In the returned `DeleteItemOutcome` and `DeleteItemResult` there is no field or method to determine if the key was found and the item was indeed deleted.

The only way to find out if the item was indeed present and deleted, is to request the items' attributes:

`new DeleteItemSpec()
 .withPrimaryKey("key","1")
 .withReturnValues(ReturnValue.ALL_OLD))`

This, however, consumes extra read capacity. Is there a more efficient way to check the delete result - key found and deleted / invalid key?

Answer: 
[`DeleteItemResult#getAttributes()`](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaSDK/latest/javadoc/com/amazonaws/services/dynamodbv2/model/DeleteItemResult.html#getAttributes--) is *the way* to determine if a `DeleteItem` operation has actually deleted an item, or not.

If you specify `ReturnValue.ALL_OLD` and the item was deleted, a map of item attributes is returned, otherwise and empty map is returned. This is the only way to know for sure if the operation was successful. No other confirmation is returned by the API.

Keep in mind that a `DeleteItem` operation **will consume a minimum of 1 write capacity unit every time**. If the deleted item is larger than 1KB, consumed capacity will be more than 1. 

**For reference:** <http://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/CapacityUnitCalculations.html#ItemSizeCalculations.Writes>
Try using conditional expressions like

```
attribute_exists(my_key)

```

If element doesn't exist conditional check error will be raised