How to make a queue of hashes in redis? - redis

To make a queue in redis by using LPUSH and LTRIM, in python I do it like this:
if not str(key) in r.lrange('myq', 0 , -1):
r.lpush("myq" , key)
r.ltrim("myq" , 0, MYQ_LENGTH)
But how to store key:value pairs in a redis queue?
Suppose that Keys and Values can be any strings (so can not be splitted using :), what is the best way to push
Key1:Val1
Key2:Val2
Key3:Val3
Key4:Val4
into a queue 4 items, and when the 5th pair is pushed into the queue, it pop out Key1:VAl1?

You can encode your strings using something like MessagePack or JSON, and push that into the list. Upon pop, perform the matching decode in the client (or write a Lua script that does it server-side).
Pseudo-code example:
r.lpush("myq", "{\"key1\":\"val1\"}")
...
ele = r.lpop("myq")
hash = JSON.decode(ele)

Related

Are there alternatives to Redis when buffering is undesired and unacceptable?

I want to stream real-time sensor data(webcam, laser point cloud, etc.) from one robot to multiple observers.
In this use case, only the newest data is useful. For example, when a new frame of point cloud arrives, the older ones will be useless.
Redis has nice publisher/consumer support, but it has buffers according to (Redis Pubsub and Message Queueing).
So are there better alternatives? Something like ROS's publishers/subscribers. They have a message queue size parameter.
/**
* The subscribe() call is how you tell ROS that you want to receive messages
* on a given topic.
*
* The second parameter to the subscribe() function is the size of the message
* queue. If messages are arriving faster than they are being processed, this
* is the number of messages that will be buffered up before beginning to throw
* away the oldest ones.
*/
ros::Subscriber sub = n.subscribe("chatter", 1000, chatterCallback);
Maybe you can use redis list data structure for your purpose, like a queue. The list data structure in redis is made with linked list and adding a new item is O(1). Whenever your robot produces data it can put it in a list with LPUSH command, and when you want to get the latest item from the list use LRANGE "key-name" 0 0. This command will retrive the latest pushed item. Also if you want to not accumulate the data in queue, you may try to use LTRIM before LRANGE to maintain the latest records. For example LTRIM "key-name" 0 10 will keep the records of last 10 elements. This trim interval should be set according to your observer processing speeds. ref: https://redis.io/docs/data-types/lists/

Can we store huge array of objects into Redis?

I have an array of objects similar to this
MyArray({obj1:"obj1value",obj2:"obj2value",obj3:"obj3value"})
The length of above is 500 000. Can I push it into Redis? I tried Hmset but unable to get proper solution.
In order to store above array into MySql, performance is pretty much expensive. As I need to iterate every time for insert. Hence I thought to Go with Redis. I am using Node and Redis.
You can use redis hash instead of redis list to store our data.
var redis = require("redis");
var client = redis.createClient();
client.hmset('myObject',
{'obj1': 'objValue1',
'obj2': 'objValue2',
'obj3': 'objValue3'
});
Here, myObject is the name of your hash holding key-value pair inside it.
Result:
127.0.0.1:6379> hgetall myObject
1) "obj1"
2) "objValue1"
3) "obj2"
4) "objValue2"
5) "obj3"
6) "objValue3"

In Redis, how can I guarantee fetching N number items from a list in multi-clients environment?

Assume that there is a key K in Redis that is holding a list of values.
Many producer clients are adding elements to this list, one by one using LPUSH or RPUSH.
On the other hand, another set of consumer clients are popping elements from the list, though with certain restriction. Consumers will only attempt to pop N number of items, only if the list contains at least N number of items. This ensures that the consumer will hold N items in hand after finishing popping process
If the list contains fewer than N number of items, consumers shouldn't even attempt to pop elements from the list at all, because they won't have at least N items at the end.
If there is only 1 Consumer client, the client can simply run LLEN command to check if the list contains at least N items, and subtract N using LPOP/RPOP.
However, if there are many consumer clients, there can be a race condition and they can simultaneously pop items from the list, after reading LLEN >= N. So we might end up in a state where each consumer might pop fewer than N elements, and there is no item left in the list in Redis.
Using a separate locking system seems to be one way to tackle this issue, but I was curious if this type of operation can be done only using Redis commands, such as Multi/Exec/Watch etc.
I checked Multi/Exec approach and it seems that they do not support rollback. Also, all commands executed between Multi/Exec transaction will return 'QUEUED' so I won't be able to know if N number of LPOP that I will be executing in the transaction will all return elements or not.
So all you need is an atomic way to check on list length and pop conditionally.
This is what Lua scripts are for, see EVAL command.
Here a Lua script to get you started:
local len = redis.call('LLEN', KEYS[1])
if len >= tonumber(ARGV[1]) then
local res = {n=len}
for i=1,len do
res[i] = redis.call('LPOP', KEYS[1])
end
return res
else
return false
end
Use as
EVAL "local len = redis.call('LLEN', KEYS[1]) \n if len >= tonumber(ARGV[1]) then \n local res = {n=len} \n for i=1,len do \n res[i] = redis.call('LPOP', KEYS[1]) \n end \n return res \n else \n return false \n end" 1 list 3
This will only pop ARGV[1] elements (the number after the key name) from the list if the list has at least that many elements.
Lua scripts are ran atomically, so there is no race condition between reading clients.
As OP pointed in comments, there is risk of data-loss, say because power failure between LPOPs and the script return. You can use RPOPLPUSH instead of LPOP, storing the elements on a temporary list. Then you also need some tracking, deleting, and recovery logic. Note your client could also die, leaving some elements unprocessed.
You may want to take a look at Redis Streams. This data structure is ideal for distributing load among many clients. When using it with Consumer Groups, it has a pending entries list (PEL), that acts as that temporary list.
Clients then do a XACK to remove elements from the PEL once processed. Then you are also protected from client failures.
Redis Streams are very useful to solve the complex problem you are trying to solve. You may want to do the free course about this.
You could use a prefetcher.
Instead of each consumer greedily picking an item from the queue which leads to the problem of 'water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink', you could have a prefetcher that builds a packet of size = 6. When the prefetcher has a full packet, it can place the item in a separate packet queue (another redis key with list of packets) and pop the items from the main queue in a single transaction. Essentially, what you wrote:
If there is only 1 Consumer client, the client can simply run LLEN
command to check if the list contains at least N items, and subtract N
using LPOP/RPOP.
If the prefetcher doesn't have a full packet, it does nothing and keeps waiting for the main queue size to reach 6.
On the consumer side, they will just query the prefetched packets queue and pop the top packet and go. It is always 1 pre-built packet (size=6 items). If there are no packets available, they wait.
On the producer side, no changes are required. They can keep inserting into the main queue.
BTW, there can be more than one prefetcher task running concurrently and they can synchronize access to the main queue between themselves.
Implementing a scalable prefetcher
Prefetcher implementation could be described using a buffet table analogy. Think of the main queue as a restaurant buffet table where guests can pick up their food and leave. Etiquette demands that the guests follow a queue system and wait for their turn. Prefetchers also would follow something analogous. Here's the algorithm:
Algorithm Prefetch
Begin
while true
check = main queue has 6 items or more // this is a queue read. no locks required
if(check == true)
obtain an exclusive lock on the main queue
if lock successful
begin a transaction
create a packet and fill it with top 6 items from
the queue after popping them
add the packet to the prefetch queue
if packet added to prefetch queue successfully
commit the transaction
else
rollback the transaction
end if
release the lock
else
// someone else has the excl lock, we should just wait
sleep for xx millisecs
end if
end if
end while
End
I am just showing an infinite polling loop here for simplicity. But this could be implemented using pub/sub pattern through Redis Notifications. So, the prefetcher just waits for a notification that the main queue key is receiving an LPUSH and then executes the logic inside the while loop body above.
There are other ways you could do this. But this should give you some ideas.

Is there a method for arudino to store values into different variables as soon as they come over a serial connection?

I have built an android app that will send a string of values (using getbyte()_) across a serial connection. I would like each of these values to be stored in a seperate variable/
For example:
a list of numbers like this:
10004056700003
are sent across the connection.
there are a bunch of variables on the arduino side:
A,B,C,D.... etc
i would like to be able to do this:
A = 1
B = 0
C = 0
D = 0
E = 4
F= 0
.... and so on. i will then use these variables to run a certain sequence of functions on the arduino. In this sense the android application is just to control the arduino.
Thanks for the help! :D
Serial communication usually happens byte-wise.
So if you want to transfer a sequence of numbers (>255) the easiest way is to send each digit as a byte.
On the receiving end you basically have two options.
a) you read each byte and do something with it befor reading the next byte.
b) you read the bytes into a buffer array and do something with it later.
If you want to minimize the number of bytes transferred you of course can split the number value into several bytes instead of transferring each digit.
Try sending the data as String, and then you can access each character of the String using the method: StringVariableName.charAt(pos);
With this approach, your code will be more readable.
Check out charAt function here.

Is there good way to support pop members from the Redis Sorted Set?

Is there good way to support pop members from the Redis Sorted Set just like the api LPOP of the List ?
What I figured out for poping message from the Redis Sorted Set is using ZRANGE +ZREM , however it is not thread security and need the distributed lock when multi threads accessing them at the same time from the different host.
Please kind suggesting if there is better way to pop the members from the Sorted Set?
In Redis 5.0 or above, you can use [B]ZPOP{MIN|MAX} key [count] for this scenario.
The MIN version takes the item(s) with the lowest scores; MAX takes the item(s) with the highest scores. count defaults to 1, and the B prefix blocks until the data is available.
ZPOPMIN
ZPOPMAX
BZPOPMIN
BZPOPMAX
You can write a Lua script to do the job: wrap these two commands in a single Lua script. Redis ensures that the Lua script runs in an atomic way.
local key = KEYS[1]
local result = redis.call('ZRANGE', key, 0, 0)
local member = result[1]
if member then
redis.call('ZREM', key, member)
return member
else
return nil
end