In-memory object cache written in typescript for Node that supports multiple eviction strategies.

Currently supported strategies are LRU, FIFO, LIFO, LFU, MRU and RR.

For more information visit: Wikipedia replacement policies.

Creating a cache

Caches are named Simple followed by the name of the replacement policy. So the constructor for a LRU cache would be SimpleLRU(), the constructor for a FIFO cache would be SimpleFIFO(), etc.

There are two methods you can use to create a cache. Both the key and value of the key-value store can be of any type you like.

Creating a LRU cache - method 1

// Import simple-node-memory-cache
import { SimpleLRU } from "simple-node-memory-cache";

// create a type that will be stored
type Person = { firstname: string; lastname: string };
type CanTeach = { courses: string[] };
type Teacher = Person & CanTeach;

// Create the LRU cache
const cache: SimpleLRU<string, Teacher> = new SimpleLRU<string, Teacher>();

This creates a LRU cache that can hold the default maximum amount of object. To find out what the current default is set to use it's get method.

// A cache has been created at this point
console.log(cache.maxObjectsInCache);

At times you might want to change the maximum amount of object allowed in the cache. This can be done using it's setter.

// A cache has been created at this point

// Set the amount of objects this cache can contain to 50.
cache.maxObjectsInCache = 50;

Creating a LRU cache - method 2

Instead of having to change the amount of objects a cache can hold after it is created. It is also possible to define this in the constructor.

// Import simple-node-memory-cache
import { SimpleLRU } from "simple-node-memory-cache";

// create a type that will be stored
type Person = { firstname: string; lastname: string };
type CanTeach = { courses: string[] };
type Teacher = Person & CanTeach;

// Create the LRU cache that can hold 100 objects
const cache: SimpleLRU<string, Teacher> = new SimpleLRU<string, Teacher>(100);

Adding and retrieving

To add an object to the cache simply:

// A cache has been created at this point
cache.set(key, value);

To retrieve an entry:

// A cache has been created at this point
cache.get(key);

Currently supported methods and their signature

clear(): void

Removes all entries from the cache.

has(key: T): boolean

Returns if the key exists in the cache.

length(): number

Returns the amount of entries in the cache.

delete(key: T): void

Removes the data and key from the cache that is referred to by the provided key.

get(key: T): [U, number, number] | undefined

Retrieves an entry pointed to by the key. If the entry does not exist undefined will be returned.

set(key: T, value: U): Map<T, [U, number, number]>

Adds an entry to the cache and returns a Map file containing the keys mapped to an array containing the values, the last time the entry was viewed (as unix timestamp) and the number of times the entry was viewed (the last two are only set if the eviction strategy requires this).

entries(): IterableIterator<[T, [U, number, number]]>

Returns an IterableIterator holding both the key and value.

keys(): IterableIterator<T>

Returns an IterableIterator holding only the keys.

values(): IterableIterator<[U, number, number]>

Returns an IterableIterator holding only the values.

A short note

In order to use entries(), keys() and values(), the tsconfig.json file must use es6 as a target to compile to or set "downlevelIteration": true (in cases where you need to compile to es5).

Implementing your own eviction strategy

It is possible to implement your own evictions strategy. All caches need to inherit from cacheBase/Cache.ts and should implement the interfaces/ICacheImp interface. This interface defines 2 methods to get and set an entry in the cache. Values in the cache are stored as an array of 3 items. The first item is the actual value stored by the user, the second one is a timestamp and the 3th describes how often the item is viewed.

Next update will include:

• In the next update, elements from the cache that are not shared by all cache types will be removed from the abstract class Cache.ts.