Memoize – Complete memoize/cache solution for JavaScript

Originally derived from es5-ext package.

Memoization is best technique to save on memory or CPU cycles when we deal with repeated operations. For detailed insight see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoization

Features

Usage

var memoize = require('memoizee');

var fn = function (one, two, three) { / ... / };

memoized = memoize(fn);

memoized('foo', 3, 'bar');
memoized('foo', 3, 'bar'); // Cache hit

Installation

NPM

In your project path:

$ npm install memoizee

Browser

Browser bundle can be easily created with help of modules-webmake. Assuming that you have latest Node.js and Git installed, following will work in command shell of any system (Linux/MacOS/Windows):

$ npm install -g webmake
$ git clone git://github.com/medikoo/memoize.git
$ cd memoize
$ npm install
$ cd ..
$ webmake --name=memoize memoize/lib/index.js memoize.js

Last command bundles memoize with all it's functionalities, but you may need just a subset, you can have that by addressing specific modules directly, e.g. with following you will build just primitive mode with support for asynchronous functions:

$ webmake --name=memoize --include=memoize/lib/ext/async.js memoize/lib/primitive.js memoize.js

If you work with AMD modules, add amd option, so generated bundle is one:

$ webmake --name=memoize --amd memoize/lib/index.js memoize.js

Mind that memoize relies on some EcmaScript5 features, so for older browsers you need to load as well es5-shim

Configuration

All below options can be applied in any combination

Arguments length

By default fixed number of arguments that function take is assumed (it's read from function's length property) this can be overridden:

memoized = memoize(fn, { length: 2 });

memoized('foo');            // Assumed: 'foo', undefined
memoized('foo', undefined); // Cache hit

memoized('foo', 3, {}); // Third argument is ignored (but passed to underlying function)
memoized('foo', 3, 13); // Cache hit

Dynamic length behavior can be forced by setting length to false, that means memoize will work with any number of arguments.

memoized = memoize(fn, { length: false });

memoized('foo');
memoized('foo'); // Cache hit
memoized('foo', undefined);
memoized('foo', undefined); // Cache hit

memoized('foo', 3, {});
memoized('foo', 3, 13);
memoized('foo', 3, 13); // Cache hit

Primitive mode

If we work with large result sets, or memoize hot functions, default mode may not perform as fast as we expect. In that case it's good to run memoization in primitive mode. To provide fast access, results are saved in hash instead of an array. Generated hash ids are result of arguments to string convertion. Mind that this mode will work correctly only if stringified arguments produce unique strings.

memoized = memoize(fn, { primitive: true });

memoized('/path/one');
memoized('/path/one'); // Cache hit

Resolvers

When not working in primitive mode but expecting arguments of certain type it's good to coerce them before doing memoization. We can do that by passing additional resolvers array:

memoized = memoize(fn, { length: 2, resolvers: [String, Boolean] });

memoized(12, [1,2,3].length);
memoized("12", true); // Cache hit
memoized({ toString: function () { return "12"; } }, {}); // Cache hit

Note. If your arguments are collections (arrays or hashes) that you want to memoize by content (not by self objects), you need to cast them to strings, for that just use primitive mode. Arrays have standard string representation and work with primitive mode out of a box, for hashes you need to define toString method, that will produce unique string descriptions.

Similarly if you want to memoize functions by their code representation not by their objects, you should use primitive mode.

Memoizing asynchronous functions

With async option we indicate that we memoize asynchronous function.
Operations that result with an error are not cached.

afn = function (a, b, cb) {
  setTimeout(function () {
    cb(null, a + b);
  }, 200);
};
memoized = memoize(afn, { async: true });

memoized(3, 7, function (err, res) {
  memoized(3, 7, function (err, res) {
    // Cache hit
  });
});

memoized(3, 7, function (err, res) {
  // Cache hit
});

Memoizing a method

When we are defining a prototype, we may want to define method that will memoize it's results in relation to each instance. Basic way to obtain that would be:

var Foo = function () {
  this.bar = memoize(this.bar.bind(this));
  // ... constructor logic
};
Foo.prototype.bar = function () {
  // ... method logic
};

With method option we can configure memoization directly on prototype:

var Foo = function () {
  // ... constructor logic
};
Foo.prototype.bar = memoize(function () {
  // ... method logic
}, { method: 'bar' });

Additionally we may provide descriptor which would be used for defining method on instance object:

var Foo = function () {
  // ... constructor logic
};
Foo.prototype.bar = memoize(function () {
  // ... method logic
}, { method: { name: 'bar', descriptor: { configurable: true } } });

Cache handling

Manual clean up:

Clear data for particular call.

memoized.clear('foo', true);

Arguments passed to clear are treated with same rules as input arguments passed to function

Clear all cached data:

memoized.clearAll();

Expire cache after given period of time

With maxAge option we can ensure that cache for given call is cleared after predefined period of time

memoized = memoize(fn, { maxAge: 1000 });

memoized('foo', 3);
memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit
setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // No longer in cache, re-executed
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit
}, 2000);

Additionally we may ask to pre-fetch in a background a value that is about to expire. Pre-fetch is invoked only if value is accessed close to its expiry date. By default it needs to be within at least 33% of maxAge timespan before expire:

memoized = memoize(fn, { maxAge: 1000, preFetch: true }); // Defaults to 0.33

memoized('foo', 3);
memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit

setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit
}, 500);

setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit, silently pre-fetched in next tick
}, 800);

setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit
}, 1300);

Pre-fetch timespan can be customized:

memoized = memoize(fn, { maxAge: 1000, preFetch: 0.6 });

memoized('foo', 3);
memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit

setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit, silently pre-fetched in next tick
}, 500);

setTimeout(function () {
  memoized('foo', 3); // Cache hit
}, 1300);

Thanks @puzrin for helpful suggestions concerning this functionality

Reference counter

We can track number of references returned from cache, and manually clear them. When last reference is cleared, cache is purged automatically:

memoized = memoize(fn, { refCounter: true });

memoized('foo', 3);          // refs: 1
memoized('foo', 3);          // Cache hit, refs: 2
memoized('foo', 3);          // Cache hit, refs: 3
memoized.clearRef('foo', 3); // refs: 2
memoized.clearRef('foo', 3); // refs: 1
memoized.clearRef('foo', 3); // refs: 0, Cache purged for 'foo', 3
memoized('foo', 3);          // Re-executed, refs: 1

Limiting cache size

With max option you can limit cache size, it's backed with LRU algorithm

memoized = memoize(fn, { max: 2 });

memoized('foo', 3);
memoized('bar', 7);
memoized('foo', 3);    // Cache hit
memoized('bar', 7);    // Cache hit
memoized('lorem', 11); // Cache cleared for 'foo', 3
memoized('bar', 7);    // Cache hit
memoized('foo', 3);    // Re-executed, Cache cleared for 'lorem', 11
memoized('lorem', 11); // Re-executed, Cache cleared for 'bar', 7
memoized('foo', 3);    // Cache hit
memoized('bar', 7);    // Re-executed, Cache cleared for 'lorem', 11

Registering dispose callback

You can register callback that is called on each value being removed from cache:

memoized = memoize(fn, { dispose: function (value) { /…/ } });

var foo3 = memoized('foo', 3);
var bar7 = memoized('bar', 7);
memoized.clear('foo', 3); // Dispose called with foo3 value
memoized.clear('bar', 7); // Dispose called with bar7 value

Benchmarks

Simple benchmark tests can be found in benchmark folder. Currently it's just plain simple calculation of fibonacci sequences. To run it you need to install other test candidates:

$ npm install underscore lodash lru-cache

Example output taken under Node v0.8.9 on 2008 MBP Pro:

Fibonacci 3000 x10:

1:    21ms  Memoizee (primitive mode)
1:    21ms  Lo-dash
3:    23ms  Underscore
4:    88ms  Memoizee (primitive mode) LRU (max: 1000)
5:   178ms  Memoizee (object mode)
6:   234ms  Memoizee (object mode)    LRU (max: 1000)
7:  2852ms  lru-cache                 LRU (max: 1000)

Profiling & Statistics

If you want to make sure how much you benefit from memoization or just check if memoization works as expected, loading profile module will give access to all valuable information.

Module needs to be imported before any memoization (that we want to track) is configured. Mind also that running profile module affects performance, it's best not to use it in production environment

var memProfile = require('memoizee/lib/ext/profile');

Access statistics at any time:

memProfile.statistics;         // Statistcs accessible for programmatical use
console.log(memProfile.log()); // Output statistics data in readable form

Example console output:

------------------------------------------------------------
Memoize statistics:

 Init  Cache  %Cache  Source location
11604  35682   75.46  (all)
 2112  19901   90.41  at /Users/medikoo/Projects/_packages/next/lib/fs/is-ignored.js:276:12
 2108   9087   81.17  at /Users/medikoo/Projects/_packages/next/lib/fs/is-ignored.js:293:10
 6687   2772   29.31  at /Users/medikoo/Projects/_packages/next/lib/fs/watch.js:125:9
  697   3922   84.91  at /Users/medikoo/Projects/_packages/next/lib/fs/is-ignored.js:277:15
------------------------------------------------------------
  • Init – Initial hits
  • Cache – Cache hits
  • %Cache – What's the percentage of cache hits (of all function calls)
  • Source location – Where in the source code given memoization was initialized

Tests Build Status

$ npm test

Contributors

  • @puzrin (Vitaly Puzrin)
    • Proposal and help with coining right pre-fetch logic for maxAge variant