-</pre>The <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCR</a> command parses the string value as an integer, increments it by one, and finally sets the obtained value as the new string value. There are other similar commands like <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCRBY</a>, <a href="IncrCommand.html">DECR</a> and <a href="IncrCommand.html">DECRBY</a>. Actually internally it's always the same command, acting in a slightly different way.<br/><br/>What means that INCR is atomic? That even multiple clients issuing INCR against the same key will never incur into a race condition. For instance it can't never happen that client 1 read "10", client 2 read "10" at the same time, both increment to 11, and set the new value of 11. The final value will always be of 12 ad the read-increment-set operation is performed while all the other clients are not executing a command at the same time.<br/><br/>Another interesting operation on string is the <a href="GetsetCommand.html">GETSET</a> command, that does just what its name suggests: Set a key to a new value, returning the old value, as result. Why this is useful? Example: you have a system that increments a Redis key using the <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCR</a> command every time your web site receives a new visit. You want to collect this information one time every hour, without loosing a single key. You can GETSET the key assigning it the new value of "0" and reading the old value back.<h2><a name="The List type">The List type</a></h2>To explain the List data type it's better to start with a little of theory, as the term <b>List</b> is often used in an improper way by information technology folks. For instance "Python Lists" are not what the name may suggest (Linked Lists), but them are actually Arrays (the same data type is called Array in Ruby actually).<br/><br/>From a very general point of view a List is just a sequence of ordered elements: 10,20,1,2,3 is a list, but when a list of items is implemented using an Array and when instead a <b>Linked List</b> is used for the implementation, the properties change a lot.<br/><br/>Redis lists are implemented via Linked Lists, this means that even if you have million of elements inside a list, the operation of adding a new element in the head or in the tail of the list is performed <b>in constant time</b>. Adding a new element with the <a href="LpopCommand.html">LPOP</a> command to the head of a ten elements list is the same speed as adding an element to the head of a 10 million elements list.<br/><br/>What's the downside? That accessing an element <b>by index</b> is very fast in lists implemented with an Array and not so fast in lists implemented by linked lists.<br/><br/>Redis Lists are implemented with linked lists because for a database system is crucial to be able to add elements to a very long list in a very fast way. Another strong advantage is, as you'll see in a moment, that Redis Lists can be taken at constant length in constant time.<h3><a name="First steps with Redis lists">First steps with Redis lists</a></h3>The <a href="RpushCommand.html">LPUSH</a> command add a new element into a list, on the left (on head), while the <a href="RpushCommand.html">RPUSH</a> command add a new element into alist, ot the right (on tail). Finally the <a href="LrangeCommand.html">LRANGE</a> command extract ranges of elements from lists:<br/><br/><pre class="codeblock python python python" name="code">
+</pre>The <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCR</a> command parses the string value as an integer, increments it by one, and finally sets the obtained value as the new string value. There are other similar commands like <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCRBY</a>, <a href="IncrCommand.html">DECR</a> and <a href="IncrCommand.html">DECRBY</a>. Actually internally it's always the same command, acting in a slightly different way.<br/><br/>What means that INCR is atomic? That even multiple clients issuing INCR against the same key will never incur into a race condition. For instance it can't never happen that client 1 read "10", client 2 read "10" at the same time, both increment to 11, and set the new value of 11. The final value will always be of 12 ad the read-increment-set operation is performed while all the other clients are not executing a command at the same time.<br/><br/>Another interesting operation on string is the <a href="GetsetCommand.html">GETSET</a> command, that does just what its name suggests: Set a key to a new value, returning the old value, as result. Why this is useful? Example: you have a system that increments a Redis key using the <a href="IncrCommand.html">INCR</a> command every time your web site receives a new visit. You want to collect this information one time every hour, without loosing a single key. You can GETSET the key assigning it the new value of "0" and reading the old value back.<h2><a name="The List type">The List type</a></h2>To explain the List data type it's better to start with a little of theory, as the term <b>List</b> is often used in an improper way by information technology folks. For instance "Python Lists" are not what the name may suggest (Linked Lists), but them are actually Arrays (the same data type is called Array in Ruby actually).<br/><br/>From a very general point of view a List is just a sequence of ordered elements: 10,20,1,2,3 is a list, but when a list of items is implemented using an Array and when instead a <b>Linked List</b> is used for the implementation, the properties change a lot.<br/><br/>Redis lists are implemented via Linked Lists, this means that even if you have million of elements inside a list, the operation of adding a new element in the head or in the tail of the list is performed <b>in constant time</b>. Adding a new element with the <a href="LpushCommand.html">LPUSH</a> command to the head of a ten elements list is the same speed as adding an element to the head of a 10 million elements list.<br/><br/>What's the downside? That accessing an element <b>by index</b> is very fast in lists implemented with an Array and not so fast in lists implemented by linked lists.<br/><br/>Redis Lists are implemented with linked lists because for a database system is crucial to be able to add elements to a very long list in a very fast way. Another strong advantage is, as you'll see in a moment, that Redis Lists can be taken at constant length in constant time.<h3><a name="First steps with Redis lists">First steps with Redis lists</a></h3>The <a href="RpushCommand.html">LPUSH</a> command add a new element into a list, on the left (on head), while the <a href="RpushCommand.html">RPUSH</a> command add a new element into alist, ot the right (on tail). Finally the <a href="LrangeCommand.html">LRANGE</a> command extract ranges of elements from lists:<br/><br/><pre class="codeblock python python python" name="code">