OBJECT-REFCOUNT(3valkey)

✨ OBJECT-REFCOUNT ✨ (from the valkey manual, section 3, bestie 💖)

okay so real talk, this one is SO simple and that's exactly why it's iconic 💅

🎀 NAME 🎀

object-refcount — literally just tells you how many references are pointing at the value stored at a key. that's it. that's the whole job. queen behavior.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

OBJECT REFCOUNT key

This command returns the reference count of the stored at <key>. (yes i know, the original sentence is missing a word, i'm not gonna gaslight you and pretend it isn't — it means the reference count of the value stored at <key>. the way that grammar just gave up 😭)

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🌸 REPLY 🌸

💜 RESP2

One of the following, bestie:

• valkey-protocol(7) Integer reply: the number of references. 🔢
• valkey-protocol(7) Nil reply: if key doesn't exist. 💀

💜 RESP3

One of the following:

• valkey-protocol(7) Integer reply: the number of references. 🔢
• valkey-protocol(7) Null reply: if key doesn't exist. 💀

not me pointing out that RESP2 says "Nil" and RESP3 says "Null" — yes they're two different things, and no i will not be the one to conflate them. character development 🙈

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🧚 COMPLEXITY 🧚

O(1) — constant time, no cap. she does not care how big your keyspace is, she is NOT scrolling. main character energy only 👑

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🌈 ACL CATEGORIES 🌈

• @keyspace
• @read
• @slow

lowkey the @slow tag is doing the most here considering it's literally O(1), but the categories said what they said and i respect the system 🫶

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🍓 HISTORY 🍓

• Available since: 2.2.3 — she's an OG, been here since basically forever, a true vintage icon ✨

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read these too, they're all in the same friend group:

• copy(3valkey)
• del(3valkey)
• dump(3valkey)
• exists(3valkey)
• expire(3valkey)
• expireat(3valkey)
• expiretime(3valkey)
• keys(3valkey)
• migrate(3valkey)
• move(3valkey)
• object(3valkey)
• object-encoding(3valkey)
• object-freq(3valkey)
• object-help(3valkey)
• object-idletime(3valkey)
• persist(3valkey)
• pexpire(3valkey)
• pexpireat(3valkey)
• pexpiretime(3valkey)
• pttl(3valkey)
• randomkey(3valkey)
• rename(3valkey)
• renamenx(3valkey)
• restore(3valkey)
• scan(3valkey)
• sort(3valkey)
• sort_ro(3valkey)
• touch(3valkey)
• ttl(3valkey)
• type(3valkey)
• unlink(3valkey)
• wait(3valkey)
• waitaof(3valkey)

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and that's the whole page, we ate and left absolutely no crumbs 💅✨ this was version 9.0.0, dated 2025-10-21, brought to you by the valkey girlies. stay refcounted, stay iconic, ily 🫶💖🎀