Microsoft Enterprise Library Caching Application Block not thread safe?

Question

I created a super simple console app to test out the Enterprise Library Caching Application Block, and the behavior is baffling. I'm hoping I screwed something that's easy to fix in the setup. I have each item expire after 5 seconds for testing purposes.

Basic setup -- "Every second pick a number between 0 and 2. If the cache doesn't already have it, put it in there -- otherwise just grab it from the cache. Do this inside a LOCK statement to ensure thread safety.

APP.CONFIG:

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="cachingConfiguration" type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.Configuration.CacheManagerSettings, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching, Version=4.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
  </configSections>
  <cachingConfiguration defaultCacheManager="Cache Manager">
    <cacheManagers>
      <add expirationPollFrequencyInSeconds="1" maximumElementsInCacheBeforeScavenging="1000"
      numberToRemoveWhenScavenging="10" backingStoreName="Null Storage"
      type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.CacheManager, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching, Version=4.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
      name="Cache Manager" />
    </cacheManagers>
    <backingStores>
      <add encryptionProviderName="" type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.BackingStoreImplementations.NullBackingStore, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching, Version=4.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
      name="Null Storage" />
    </backingStores>
  </cachingConfiguration>
</configuration>

C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Caching.Expirations;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        public static ICacheManager cache = CacheFactory.GetCacheManager("Cache Manager");
    static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            while (true)
            {
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000); // sleep for one second.
                var key = new Random().Next(3).ToString();
                string value;
                lock (cache)
                {
                    if (!cache.Contains(key))
                    {
                        cache.Add(key, key, CacheItemPriority.Normal, null, new SlidingTime(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)));
                    }
                    value = (string)cache.GetData(key);
                }
                Console.WriteLine("{0} --> '{1}'", key, value);
                //if (null == value) throw new Exception(); 
            }
        }
    }
}

OUTPUT -- How can I prevent the cache from returning nulls?

2 --> '2'
1 --> '1'
2 --> '2'
0 --> '0'
2 --> '2'
0 --> '0'
1 --> ''
0 --> '0'
1 --> '1'
2 --> ''
0 --> '0'
2 --> '2'
0 --> '0'
1 --> ''
2 --> '2'
1 --> '1'
Press any key to continue . . .

Answer 1

What you are seeing is that your CacheItem has expired due to the 5 second SlidingTime expiration.

Before returning the cached value, the GetData method performs a check to see if the CacheItem has expired. If it has expired, the CacheItem is removed from the cache and null is returned. However, the call to Contains will return true because the CacheItem is in the cache even though it's expiration may have elapsed. This seems to be by design. With that in mind, it would be wise not to cache a null value to represent no data since you would not be able to discern an expired CacheItem from an actual cached value of null.

Assuming that you do not cache a null value then Luke's solution should suit you:

value = cache.GetData(key) as string;

// If null was returned then it means that there was no item in the cache 
// or that there was an item in the cache but it had expired 
// (and was removed from the cache)
if (value == null)
{
    value = key;
    cache.Add(key, value, CacheItemPriority.Normal, null,
        new SlidingTime(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)));
}

See The Definitive Guide To Microsoft Enterprise Library for more information.