What is the difference between application state and caching

Question

Hi.. Ques : Hello friends  I want to know that what is the difference between application state and caching in ASP.NET ?

Sam Hobbs · Answer

In computer systems a cache is typically a copy of something. In the general use of the term a cache is a treasue or a stored supply of stuff but in computer systems a cache is typically temporary memory that data can be put into for quick retrieval but the data is a copy of data presisted elsewhere. For exampel a computer processor has cache memory that the processor can keep small amounts of data that it expects to use often that can be read from and written to faster than main memory but it is only a copy of data in main memory.

Jignesh Trivedi · Answer

hi Both Application Variable and Caching variable used store data in all web application with in one application pool (application domain). in other word it share common data between different application with in same application domain. Application variable only reset when application pool reset (means on IIS reset) while caching object has different type dependancy like file sql server and time to reset caching. Application object in not thread safe. You have to provide your owen locking. But Cache is thread safe. Oveerhead of locking can avoide by using Cache object good article on caching .. http://weblogs.asp.net/albertpascual/archive/2010/03/01/difference-between-asp-net-sessions-application-variables-and-cache-objects.aspx http://wiki.asp.net/page.aspx/655/caching-in-aspnet/ hope this help.

Senthilkumar · Answer

Both are used to maintain the state. The application state will be used to store and will be accessed across the site. It has to be loaded when the application starts. Its not for per use base. Cache is used to store the data for the user level and it can have the expiration policy. It can store the data cache the paging cache the portion of caching.