ASP.NET data caching vs application memory

Question

My ASP.NET application need to use 40K lines of <key, value> pairs.
with every client request, the application search the right key and return the proper value.

should I just use a Dictionary<string, string> or use ASP.NET caching solution? what is the benefit for each solution?

edit:

the lifetime of the data is the lifetime of the application.
it would be updated manually every couple of weeks.
it shared between all users
no write operation, only reads

You have tags related to databases and huge volumes of data, but your question talks about relatively small (seemingly static) dictionary without any clear relation to DB. Please consider editing your question or updating tags to match. Also please comment on lifetime of the data in the dictionary (is it some sort of cached values from DB, if ever expire, if shared between all users....) — Alexei Levenkov, Jan 01 '13 at 07:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 01 '13 at 09:05

I would suggest use ASP.NET dependacy caching if you are using SQL server. This will automatically invalidate once you change values in table. And store the values in DataSet, and make the key column key in DataSet. This way you can write fast LINQ queries as well.

ASP.NET data caching vs application memory

1 Answers1