Velocity Cache API needs TryGetValue

Ok, I’ve just started working with Microsoft’s Distributed Caching API (aka “Velocity”) and while I’m very happy with the features thus far (can’t wait for notifications!), I really think the API needs a TryGetValue method. Right now you have the Get, GetAndLock and GetIfNewer methods and all of those return type Object. My suggestion is two-fold:

1. Add the TryGetValue method with similar overloads to Get. Return a bool which, if true, indicates the item was found.
2. Take it a step further and make the method generic. This will help when working with simple value types like DateTime, Int32, Guid, etc.

Imagine you’re caching a DateTime and want to look it up… here’s an example of how you need to do that with the API today:

object cacheValue = cache.Get(“MyCachedDateTime”);
DateTime myDateTime; if(cacheValue != null)
{
   myDateTime = (DateTime)cacheValue;
}
else
{
   myDateTime = CalculateSomeComplicatedDateTime();

   cache.Add(“MyCachedDateTime”, myDateTime);
}

// … use myDateTime here …

Notice the annoying need to have a temporary object variable (“cacheValue” in the sample). You need that because you can’t cast straight to a value type like DateTime. Now let’s look at what it might look like with the TryGetValue implementation I’m suggestion:

DateTime myDateTime;

if(!cache.TryGetValue<DateTime>(“MyCachedDateTime”, out myDateTime))
{
   myDateTime = CalculateSomeComplicatedDateTime();

   cache.Add(“MyCachedDateTime”, myDateTime);
}

// … use myDateTime here …

There’s no denying the second version results in less code and, IMHO, this pattern is far more legible.