: ''This article is about the Identity Map software design pattern. For the mathematical concept, see
Identity function.''
An 'identity map' is a database access
design pattern used to improve performance by providing a context-specific in-memory
cache to prevent duplicate retrieval of the same object data from the database.
[1]
If the requested data has already been loaded from the database, the identity map returns the same instance of the already instantiated object, but if it has not been loaded yet, it loads it and stores the new object in the map. In this way, it follows a similar principle to
lazy loading.
See also
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Design pattern
★
Active record
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Lazy loading
References
1. Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, , Martin, Fowler, Addison-Wesley, 2003,