Memoization utilities for Cacheable

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Wrap / Memoization for Sync and Async Functions
• Get Or Set Memoization Function
• How to Contribute
• License and Copyright

Getting Started

To get started with @cacheable/memoize, install the package:

npm install @cacheable/memoize

Wrap / Memoization for Sync and Async Functions

The @cacheable/memoize package provides two main functions: wrap and wrapSync. These functions are used to memoize asynchronous and synchronous functions, respectively.

import { Cacheable } from 'cacheable';
const asyncFunction = async (value: number) => {
  return Math.random() * value;
};

const cache = new Cacheable();
const options = {
  ttl: '1h', // 1 hour
  keyPrefix: 'p1', // key prefix. This is used if you have multiple functions and need to set a unique prefix.
  cache,
}
const wrappedFunction = wrap(asyncFunction, options);
console.log(await wrappedFunction(2)); // 4
console.log(await wrappedFunction(2)); // 4 from cache

With wrap we have also included stampede protection so that a Promise based call will only be called once if multiple requests of the same are executed at the same time. Here is an example of how to test for stampede protection:

import { Cacheable } from 'cacheable';
const asyncFunction = async (value: number) => {
  return value;
};

const cache = new Cacheable();
const options = {
  ttl: '1h', // 1 hour
  keyPrefix: 'p1', // key prefix. This is used if you have multiple functions and need to set a unique prefix.
  cache,
}

const wrappedFunction = wrap(asyncFunction, options);
const promises = [];
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  promises.push(wrappedFunction(i));
}

const results = await Promise.all(promises); // all results should be the same

console.log(results); // [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

In this example we are wrapping an async function in a cache with a ttl of 1 hour. This will cache the result of the function for 1 hour and then expire the value. You can also wrap a sync function in a cache:

import { CacheableMemory } from 'cacheable';
const syncFunction = (value: number) => {
  return value * 2;
};

const cache = new CacheableMemory();
const wrappedFunction = wrap(syncFunction, { ttl: '1h', key: 'syncFunction', cache });
console.log(wrappedFunction(2)); // 4
console.log(wrappedFunction(2)); // 4 from cache

In this example we are wrapping a sync function in a cache with a ttl of 1 hour. This will cache the result of the function for 1 hour and then expire the value. You can also set the key property in the wrap() options to set a custom key for the cache.

When an error occurs in the function it will not cache the value and will return the error. This is useful if you want to cache the results of a function but not cache the error. If you want it to cache the error you can set the cacheError property to true in the wrap() options. This is disabled by default.

import { CacheableMemory } from 'cacheable';
const syncFunction = (value: number) => {
  throw new Error('error');
};

const cache = new CacheableMemory();
const wrappedFunction = wrap(syncFunction, { ttl: '1h', key: 'syncFunction', cacheError: true, cache });
console.log(wrappedFunction()); // error
console.log(wrappedFunction()); // error from cache

If you would like to generate your own key for the wrapped function you can set the createKey property in the wrap() options. This is useful if you want to generate a key based on the arguments of the function or any other criteria.

  const cache = new Cacheable();
  const options: WrapOptions = {
    cache,
    keyPrefix: 'test',
    createKey: (function_, arguments_, options: WrapOptions) => `customKey:${options?.keyPrefix}:${arguments_[0]}`,
  };

  const wrapped = wrap((argument: string) => `Result for ${argument}`, options);

  const result1 = await wrapped('arg1');
  const result2 = await wrapped('arg1'); // Should hit the cache

  console.log(result1); // Result for arg1
  console.log(result2); // Result for arg1 (from cache)

We will pass in the function that is being wrapped, the arguments passed to the function, and the options used to wrap the function. You can then use these to generate a custom key for the cache.

Get Or Set Memoization Function

The getOrSet method provides a convenient way to implement the cache-aside pattern. It attempts to retrieve a value from cache, and if not found, calls the provided function to compute the value and store it in cache before returning it. Here are the options:

export type GetOrSetFunctionOptions = {
    ttl?: number | string;
    cacheErrors?: boolean;
    throwErrors?: boolean;
};

Here is an example of how to use the getOrSet method:

import { Cacheable } from 'cacheable';
const cache = new Cacheable();
// Use getOrSet to fetch user data
const function_ = async () => Math.random() * 100;
const value = await getOrSet('randomValue', function_, { ttl: '1h', cache });
console.log(value); // e.g. 42.123456789

You can also use a function to compute the key for the function:

import { Cacheable, GetOrSetOptions } from 'cacheable';
const cache = new Cacheable();

// Function to generate a key based on options
const generateKey = (options?: GetOrSetOptions) => {
  return `custom_key_:${options?.cacheId || 'default'}`;
};

const function_ = async () => Math.random() * 100;
const value = await getOrSet(generateKey(), function_, { ttl: '1h', cache });

How to Contribute

You can contribute by forking the repo and submitting a pull request. Please make sure to add tests and update the documentation. To learn more about how to contribute go to our main README https://github.com/jaredwray/cacheable. This will talk about how to Open a Pull Request, Ask a Question, or Post an Issue.

License and Copyright

MIT © Jared Wray