Laravel: Cache

Some requests in an application can imply the execution of tasks that are CPU intensive or takes a lot of time to be done. For these cases, we can cache the resulting data for some time so it can be retrieved in a fast way on subsequent requests instead of having to execute the expensive task again in order to improve an application performance.

Laravel provides a unified API for various cache backends such as Memcached, Redis, DynamoDB, relational databases or file based. It also has an array and null cache driver that can be used as backends for automated tests. It can cache several things like database query results or rendered views. Let’s see an example that uses the database cache driver.

Example using database driver

First we need to create a database table to contain the cache data. If our application does not contain this migration, we can create it and run it with the following artisan commands.

php artisan make:cache-table

php artisan migrate

Then we will be able to obtain a cache instance through the Cache facade.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

Storing items in the cache

Storing indefinitely

Cache::put('key', 'value');

Cache::forever('key', 'value');

Storing during 10 seconds

Cache::put('key', 'value', $seconds = 10);

Storing during 10 minutes using DateTime

Cache::put('key', 'value', now()->addMinutes(10));

Storing indefinitely if not present

Cache::add('key', 'value');

Storing during 10 seconds if not present

Cache::add('key', 'value', $seconds = 10);

Retrieving items from the cache

Retriving

$value = Cache::get('key');

Retriving a default value if the item does not exist in the cache

$value = Cache::get('key', 'default');

Retrieving the item and stores it if it does not exist

$value = Cache::remember('key', $seconds, function () {
  return DB::table('some_table')->get();
})

Retrieving the item and stores it indefinitely if it does not exist

$value = Cache::rememberForever('key', function () {
  return DB::table('some_table')->get();
})

Retrieving and deleting the item

$value = Cache::pull('key');

Determining item existence

if (Cache::has('key')) {
  ...
}

Removing items from the cache

Cache::forget('key');

Removing the item by passing zero or negative number for expiration seconds

Cache::put('key', 'value', 0);

Cache::put('key', 'value', -5);

Clear the entire cache

Cache::flush();

Incrementing / Decrementing cached integer items

Cache::increment('key', $amount);

Cache::decrement('key', $amount);

Cache helper method

Retrieving the item

$value = cache('key');

Storing indefinitely

cache(['key' => 'value']);

Storing during 10 seconds

cache(['key' => 'value'], $seconds = 10);

Storing during 10 minutes using DateTime

cache(['key' => 'value'], now()->addMinutes(10));

When the cache helper method is called without any arguments, it returns an instance of the Illuminate\Contracts\Cache\Factory implementation that can be used to call other methods.

cache()->remember('key', $seconds, function() {
  return DB::table('some_table')->get();
});

To learn more about Laravel Cache, we can visit the official documentation.