How to cache method results in .Net

Question

Using webmethods, caching the results is pretty straight forward using "CacheDuration" attribute. Is there a similar "easy" way to cache non-webmethod outputs (or static methods) based on the parameters?

I would appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The simplest way to implement a cache is to use a Dictionary or similar data structure within your class to hold results in memory for successive calls.

public class CachedDatastore
{
    private Dictionary<string, object> cache = new Dictionary<string, object>();

    public void FindById(string id)
    {
        if (!cache.ContainsKey(id))
        {
            var data = GetDataFromDatabase(id);
            cache[id] = data;
        }

        return cache[id];
    }
}

This is just a basic example if you want to try to implement something on your own. It does not support cache "eviction" or re-loading data at any time. If you need more advanced features, I'd recommend looking around in the .NET framework for cache classes or other 3rd party libraries.