How to store a list of objects in memory at startup of webapi?

Question

Hi i'm new in C# development, I want to store a List of objects in memory when I start a simple service in dotnet core with some dummy data and can be able to access them in the Controller.

List<Cat> cats = new List<Cat>
{
new Cat(){ Name = "Sylvester", Age=8 },
new Cat(){ Name = "Whiskers", Age=2 },
new Cat(){ Name = "Sasha", Age=14 }
};

Instead of a real DB I want operate with that list to add, remove or update the object in the Controller. So I'm looking for a way to do it in memory. I see something like MemoryStream for .NET Framework, but I want expose the data like a Service. — John Barracuda, Feb 21 '18 at 10:09
Possible duplicate of [In memory database in .net](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5231891/in-memory-database-in-net) — mjwills, Feb 21 '18 at 10:11
Create a static class with a static property for your list. That's simple and works. If you have an IoC container, creating a singleton is a nicer way to do it. — Hans Kilian, Feb 21 '18 at 10:13

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 21 '18 at 10:20

A static class with a static variable will do what you want. Something like this

public static class MemoryCache
{
    public static List<Cat> Cats = new List<Cat>
    {
        new Cat() {Name = "Sylvester", Age = 8},
        new Cat() {Name = "Whiskers", Age = 2},
        new Cat() {Name = "Sasha", Age = 14}
    };
}

You can then access it from wherever you need it using something like this

Console.WriteLine(MemoryCache.Cats.Count);

How to store a list of objects in memory at startup of webapi?

1 Answers1