MEMCACHED_D...ITH_INITIAL(3)

✨ NAME ✨

memcached_decrement_with_initial — bestie, this is your all-in-one glow-up page for Incrementing and Decrementing Values 💖

This one lives in the libmemcached-awesome manual, section 3 (library calls, iykyk).

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <libmemcached/memcached.h>
       Compile and link with -lmemcached

okay so here's the whole friend group, all together:

memcached_return_t memcached_increment(memcached_st *ptr, const char
*key, size_t key_length, uint32_t offset, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_decrement(memcached_st *ptr, const char
*key, size_t key_length, uint32_t offset, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_increment_with_initial(memcached_st *ptr,
const char *key, size_t key_length, uint64_t offset, uint64_t initial,
time_t expiration, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_decrement_with_initial(memcached_st *ptr,
const char *key, size_t key_length, uint64_t offset, uint64_t initial,
time_t expiration, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_increment_by_key(memcached_st *ptr, const
char *group_key, size_t group_key_length, const char *key, size_t
key_length, uint32_t offset, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_decrement_by_key(memcached_st *ptr, const
char *group_key, size_t group_key_length, const char *key, size_t
key_length, uint32_t offset, uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_increment_with_initial_by_key(memcached_st
*ptr, const char *group_key, size_t group_key_length, const char *key,
size_t key_length, uint64_t offset, uint64_t initial, time_t expiration,
uint64_t *value)

memcached_return_t memcached_decrement_with_initial_by_key(memcached_st
*ptr, const char *group_key, size_t group_key_length, const char *key,
size_t key_length, uint64_t offset, uint64_t initial, time_t expiration,
uint64_t *value)

🎀 Parameters

like, every single one, no skipping 💅

• ptr — pointer to an initialized memcached_st struct
• group_key — key namespace
• group_key_length — length of the key namespace without any terminating zero
• key — the key
• key_length — length of the key without any terminating zero
• offset — offset to increment/decrement
• initial — initial value if key does not exist and expiration is not MEMCACHED_EXPIRATION_NOT_ADD
• expiration — expiration as a unix timestamp or as relative expiration time in seconds
• value — the resulting value after initialization/increment/decrement

🦋 Returns

memcached_return_t indicating success ⭐

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so memcached(1) servers literally have the ability to increment and decrement keys (and bestie, heads up: overflow and underflow are not detected 🙈). which is iconic actually, because it gives you the ability to use memcached to generate shared sequences of values. main character behaviour fr fr.

memcached_increment() takes a key and key_length and increments the value by the offset passed to it. The value is then returned via the uint32_t value pointer you pass to it. slay. ✨

memcached_decrement() takes a key and key_length and decrements the value by the offset passed to it. The value is then returned via the uint32_t value pointer you pass to it. 💜

memcached_increment_with_initial() takes a key and key_length and increments the value by the offset passed to it. Now here's the plot twist: if the object specified by key does not exist, one of two things may happen: If the expiration value is MEMCACHED_EXPIRATION_NOT_ADD, the operation will fail. For all other expiration values, the operation will succeed by seeding the value for that key with a initial value to expire with the provided expiration time. The flags will be set to zero. The value is then returned via the uint32_t value pointer you pass to it. And ngl, memcached_increment_with_initial is only available when using the binary protocol. 👑

memcached_decrement_with_initial() takes a key and key_length and decrements the value by the offset passed to it. Same deal as above: if the object specified by key does not exist, one of two things may happen: If the expiration value is MEMCACHED_EXPIRATION_NOT_ADD, the operation will fail. For all other expiration values, the operation will succeed by seeding the value for that key with a initial value to expire with the provided expiration time. The flags will be set to zero. The value is then returned via the uint32_t value pointer you pass to it. And literally same caveat: memcached_decrement_with_initial() is only available when using the binary protocol. 🫶

memcached_increment_by_key(), memcached_decrement_by_key(), memcached_increment_with_initial_by_key(), and memcached_decrement_with_initial_by_key() are master key equivalents of the above. the whole squad, matched. 💅

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⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

A value of type memcached_return_t is returned. On success that value will be MEMCACHED_SUCCESS. Use memcached_strerror() to translate this value to a printable string. 🎀

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

memcached(1) libmemcached(3) memcached_strerror(3)

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and that's the page bestie!! 💖 version 1.1, dated Jul 24, 2025, brought to you by the libmemcached-awesome girlies — go forth and increment responsibly, ily 🌈💅✨