Introduction

We introduced six data types that Redis supports in Chapter 2,Data Types. Besides these essential data types, which are commonly used in development, Redis also provides several useful data features to make your life easier if you understand how to use them correctly.

We will go over the following features in this chapter:

• Bitmaps: In this recipe, we will show how bitmaps can be used in lieu of strings to save memory space under some circumstances.
• Expiration: As Redis is an in-memory data store and usually used as the cache, it is imperative to set expiration for transient data. In this recipe, we will show how to set expiration for Redis keys, and what will happen when keys expire.
• Sorting: Sorting is supported when retrieving values from Redis lists, sets, and sorted sets. We will show the usage of the SORT command in this recipe.
• Pipeline: In this recipe, you will see how to use the Redis pipelines and why this is a great feature for optimizing the performance of multiple Redis...