PHP Memcached Stats (Detailed Guide w/ Code Examples)

Use Case(s)

The getStats function in Memcached is commonly used to monitor and debug the performance of your Memcached server. It provides statistical data about the server, such as the number of get/set requests, hits and misses, memory usage, etc.

Code Examples

Here's an example of how you can use the getStats function in PHP:

<?php
$memcache = new Memcached();
$memcache->addServer('localhost', 11211);

$stats = $memcache->getStats();
print_r($stats);
?>

In this example, we create a new instance of Memcached, add our server (in this case, it's on localhost port 11211), and then call getStats. The result is an associative array containing all the server stats which are printed using print_r.

Best Practices

1. Always check the connection to the Memcache server before trying to access stats or any other feature.
2. Regularly monitor Memcached stats, especially when experiencing application issues. This can help identify if caching is causing problems.
3. Use consistent keys for data storage to avoid unnecessary cache misses that could impact performance.

Common Mistakes

1. Not checking the return value of getStats(): This method will return false if it cannot retrieve stats from Memcached. Always check the return value before accessing the stats data.
2. Ignoring important statistics: Some important stats to pay attention to include "cmd_get" (number of retrieval commands), "get_misses" (number of failed retrievals), and "evictions" (number of valid items removed from cache to free up memory for new items).

FAQs

1. What does getStats return in PHP Memcached?
   getStats returns an array which includes information about the Memcached server, such as uptime (in seconds), number of items stored, total storage space used for items, and so on.
2. How can I check if my Memcached server is working correctly? You can use the getVersion() method to determine if your server is running. If it's working correctly, it will return the version of your Memcached server.