Memcached Commands Tutorial

Introduction to Memcached Commands

Memcached is a high-performance, distributed memory caching system. It is primarily used to speed up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load. This tutorial will cover the essential commands you can use with Memcached to interact with the caching system.

Basic Commands

Memcached supports several commands which allow you to store, retrieve, and manage cached data. The most commonly used commands include:

• set: Store a value in the cache.
• get: Retrieve a value from the cache.
• delete: Remove a value from the cache.
• add: Store a value only if it does not already exist.
• replace: Store a value only if it already exists.
• increment: Increase the numeric value stored in the cache.
• decrement: Decrease the numeric value stored in the cache.

Using the set Command

The set command allows you to store a key-value pair in the cache.

Example:

This command sets the key my_key with the value hello world, which will expire in 3600 seconds.

Using the get Command

The get command is used to retrieve the value associated with a key.

Example:

This command retrieves the value associated with my_key, which would return hello world.

Using the delete Command

The delete command removes a key-value pair from the cache.

Example:

This command deletes the key my_key from the cache.

Using the add Command

The add command stores a value only if the key does not already exist.

Example:

This command will only succeed if another_key does not already exist in the cache.

Using the replace Command

The replace command allows you to change the value of an existing key.

Example:

This command will update another_key only if it already exists.

Using the increment Command

The increment command allows you to increase the value of a numeric key.

Example:

This command will increase the value of counter by 1.

Using the decrement Command

The decrement command decreases the value of a numeric key.

Example:

This command will decrease the value of counter by 1.

Conclusion

Memcached commands provide a powerful toolset for managing cached data in your applications. Understanding these commands will help you optimize your application performance by efficiently handling data storage and retrieval. Make sure to experiment with each command to fully grasp their functionality.