ctci/16. Moderate problems/16.25. lru_cache.md

Least Recently Used cache

Design and build a LRU cache, which evicts the least recently used item. The cache should map from keys to values (allowing to insert and retrieve a value associated with a particular key), and be initialized with a max size. When it is full, it should evict the LRU item.

First idea

Create linked list with max size, add in forward order. When a value is to be retrieved, visit the node and put it in the back. Keep a counter for number of items added, when it surpasses max_len, drop the head.

class Node {
    Node next = null;
    int key;
    int value;
    int max_size;

    public Node(int k, int v, int max_size){
        this.key = k;
        this.value = v;
        this.max_size = max_size;
    }

    void appendToTail(int k, int v){
        Node end = new Node(k, v);
        Node head_tmp = this;
        Node n = this;

        int i = 0;
        while (n.next != null){
            // if max value is achieved, delete head node (the one accessed the last)
            if(i >= head_tmp.max_size){
                head_tmp = head_tmp.next;
                i--;
            }
            n = n.next;
            i++;
        }
        n.next = end;
    }

    int retrieve_value(int k){
        while (n.next != null){
            if(n.key == k){
                return n.value;
            }
            n = n.next;
        }
        return -1
    }
}

Hints

Both a hash table and a doubly linked list would be useful, combine the two.

Solution

A singly linked list is fast for eviction but slow for retrieval of keys. Make a doubly linked list, where it's easy to remove the middle element. The hash table maps to each linked list node rather than the value.