Redis bitmaps

Introduction to Redis bitmaps

Redis bitmaps are an extension of the string data type that lets you treat a string like a bit vector. You can also perform bitwise operations on one or more strings. Some examples of bitmap use cases include:

  • Efficient set representations for cases where the members of a set correspond to the integers 0-N.
  • Object permissions, where each bit represents a particular permission, similar to the way that file systems store permissions.

Examples

Suppose you have 1000 sensors deployed in the field, labeled 0-999. You want to quickly determine whether a given sensor has pinged the server within the hour.

You can represent this scenario using a bitmap whose key references the current hour.

  • Sensor 123 pings the server on January 1, 2024 within the 00:00 hour.
> SETBIT pings:2024-01-01-00:00 123 1
(integer) 0
  • Did sensor 123 ping the server on January 1, 2024 within the 00:00 hour?
> GETBIT pings:2024-01-01-00:00 123
1
  • What about server 456?
> GETBIT pings:2024-01-01-00:00 456
0

Basic commands

  • SETBIT sets a bit at the provided offset to 0 or 1.
  • GETBIT returns the value of a bit at a given offset.
  • BITOP lets you perform bitwise operations against one or more strings.

See the complete list of bitmap commands.

Performance

SETBIT and GETBIT are O(1). BITOP is O(n), where n is the length of the longest string in the comparison.

Learn more

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