A memoization library which only remembers the latest invocation

Cache invalidation is hard:

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

Phil Karlton

So keep things simple and just use a cache size of one.

Unlike other memoization libraries, memoize-one only remembers the latest arguments and result. No need to worry about cache busting mechanisms such as maxAge, maxSize, exclusions and so on which can be prone to memory leaks. memoize-one simply remembers the last arguments, and if the function is next called with the same arguments then it returns the previous result.

import memoizeOne from 'memoize-one';

const add = (a, b) => a + b;
const memoizedAdd = memoizeOne(add);

memoizedAdd(1, 2); // 3

memoizedAdd(1, 2); // 3
// Add function is not executed: previous result is returned

memoizedAdd(2, 3); // 5
// Add function is called to get new value

memoizedAdd(2, 3); // 5
// Add function is not executed: previous result is returned

memoizedAdd(1, 2); // 3
// Add function is called to get new value.
// While this was previously cached,
// it is not the latest so the cached result is lost

Play with this example

You can also pass in a custom function for checking the equality of two items.

import memoizeOne from 'memoize-one';
import deepEqual from 'lodash.isEqual';

const identity = x => x;

const defaultMemoization = memoizeOne(identity);
const customMemoization = memoizeOne(identity, deepEqual);

const result1 = defaultMemoization({foo: 'bar'});
const result2 = defaultMemoization({foo: 'bar'});

result1 === result2 // false - difference reference

const result3 = customMemoization({foo: 'bar'});
const result4 = customMemoization({foo: 'bar'});

result3 === result4 // true - arguments are deep equal

Play with this example

Here is the expected flow type signature for a custom equality function:

type EqualityFn = (a: any, b: any) => boolean;

# yarn
yarn add memoize-one

# npm
npm install memoize-one --save

import memoizeOne from 'memoize-one';

If you are in a CommonJS environment (eg Node), then you will need to add .default to your import:

const memoizeOne = require('memoize-one').default;

This library takes special care to maintain, and allow control over the the this context for both the original function being memoized as well as the returned memoized function. Both the original function and the memoized function's this context respect all the this controlling techniques:

• new bindings (new)
• explicit binding (call, apply, bind);
• implicit binding (call site: obj.foo());
• default binding (window or undefined in strict mode);
• fat arrow binding (binding to lexical this)
• ignored this (pass null as this to explicit binding)

Changes to the running context (this) of a function can result in the function returning a different value even though its arguments have stayed the same:

function getA() {
  return this.a;
}

const temp1 = {
  a: 20,
};
const temp2 = {
  a: 30,
}

getA.call(temp1); // 20
getA.call(temp2); // 30

Therefore, in order to prevent against unexpected results, memoize-one takes into account the current execution context (this) of the memoized function. If this is different to the previous invocation then it is considered a change in argument. further discussion.

Generally this will be of no impact if you are not explicity controlling the this context of functions you want to memoize with explicit binding or implicit binding. memoize-One will detect when you are manipulating this and will then consider the this context as an argument. If this changes, it will re-execute the original function even if the arguments have not changed.

memoize-one is super lightweight at 457 bytes minified and 299 bytes gzipped. (1kb = 1000 bytes)

memoize-one performs better or on par with than other popular memoization libraries for the purpose of remembering the latest invocation.

Results

• simple arguments
• complex arguments

The comparisions are not exhaustive and are primiarly to show that memoize-one accomplishes remembering the latest invocation really fast. The benchmarks do not take into account the differences in feature sets, library sizes, parse time, and so on.

• Tested with all built in JavaScript types.
• 100% code coverage
• Continuous integration to run tests and type checks.
• Flow types for safer internal execution and external consumption. Also allows for editor autocompletion.
• Follows Semantic versioning (2.0) for safer consumption.
• No dependencies