title: How to look up an amazon resource using the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) as an identifier?
body: <p>With respect to an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) the AWS documentation states that: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Amazon Resource Names (ARNs) uniquely identify AWS resources. We require an ARN when you need to specify a resource unambiguously across all of AWS, such as in IAM policies, Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) tags, and API calls.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p><a href="http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-arns-and-namespaces.html" rel="noreferrer">http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-arns-and-namespaces.html</a></p>
  
  <p><strong>Question</strong></p>
  
  <p>Is it possible to look up a specific AWS resource using the ARN as an identifier? </p>
  
  <p>For example if I was to use the SDK would it be possible to do something along the lines of: </p>
  
  <pre><code>Instance instance = AmazonResourceName.find(arnId); // look up via ARN?
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If this is not possible, then the question becomes:</p>
  
  <p><strong>*What is the recommended approach for finding an AWS resources using the API? and What are the identifiers available for look up? *</strong></p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>