Fastest way to removeAll

Question

I need to remove quite a few entries from a cache that match a certain criteria. There is cache.putAll(Map) for en-masse cache loading, but there is no equivalent cache.removeAll(Set keys).
What is the fastest way to achieve this? I am thinking this:
        Filter f = new EqualsFilter(...)
         cache.invokeAll(f, new InvocableMap.EntryProcessor(){
               public Object process(Entry entry) {
                    entry.remove(false);
                    return null;
               public Map processAll(Set setEntries) {
                    Iterator iter = setEntries.iterator()
                    while(iter.hasNext()){
                         Entry entry = (Entry) iter.next();
                               entry.remove(false);
                                return null;
         });Is there a faster way?
Thanks
Ghanshyam

Answer 1

Hi Ghanshyam,
for non-transactional replicated caches, you can simply use the
cache.keySet().removeAll(keys)
for non-transactional partitioned caches, you can use either the same (provided you use a recent version, in older versions it had some performance impact).
Since 3.1 you can also use the following:
cache.invokeAll(keys, new ConditionalRemove(AlwaysFilter.INSTANCE));
For transactional caches you should not call the keySet().
For transactional caches, depending on the isolation level, you can iterate them and remove them individually (for GET_COMMITTED or EXTERNAL).
For optimistic transactional caches with a transaction validator registered and having REPEATABLE_GET or SERIALIZABLE isolation level, before the iteration and removal you should also get all entries for the keys with transactionMap.getAll(keys), so they are enlisted to the transaction validator with a bulk read, and not with individual reads upon remove.
This advices might not be the most optimal, but I believe, they are more or less so.
Best regards,
Robert