caching question

[fascom746]

Hello:
I have a database table "categories". The content of this table do not
update regularly, So I have imported the content of this table in a
text file "categories.txt". Now I have several mysql queries like

$cat_query=mysql_query("Select * from sbbleads_categories where sb_id=" . $cid );
if ($cat=mysql_fetch_array($cat_query))
{
$catname=$cat["sb_cat_name"];
$category=$cat["sb_id"];
}

I want instead of quering mysql database every time which can use much
CPU resources Can I query the text file "categories.txt"? Please let me know how can I do this.

[Roger_Ramjet]

If the data does not change very often then you should use Query Caching .

[fascom746]

But can I use text file instead how?

[MarkR]

You should not do this unless there is a real measurable performance PROBLEM.

Only do this if:

1. There is a performance problem
2. The problem is definitely caused by the query
3. Doing query caching using a disc file definitely speeds it up.

If the answer is "No" to any of the above, don't do it!

In any case, caching an entire generated page may be a better solution in general for a high traffic site. This can be achieved a good deal higher up (e.g. Apache 2.2 has local content caching capabilities)

Mark

[fascom746]

OK , Could someone give me some code snippet for query caching for above mentioned mysql query. I have read article about query caching at mysql.com but could not understand it. The query case would be first it checks if database has updated for the defined variable($cid). If database updated it should do query otherwise it should cache the data from already cached text file. Please also tell me how it can write cache to some text file

Thanks