Is Caching the same thing as Indexing?

[IzMike]

Just a quick question... Is Caching the same thing as Indexing? From my understanding caching is like indexing but for windows not my browser. Just  wondering

[Vitalius]

No.

Caching is storing frequently used files in memory (RAM or equivalent of) to be accessed quickly.

Indexing is creating a list of files with locations so that they can be found quicker on an HDD or in a storage ecosystem (RAID, or what have you like JBOD).

[MdX MaxX]

I suppose you can say indexing is a form of caching.  It's storing certain file information in order to more quickly access the files later.

 

But in general, no, the two are not the same by definition.

[GoodBytes]

Indexing is like a phone book.

Cashing is like a contact list on your phone with phone numbers that you call often. You need to spend a while trying to find a commonly called number in the phone book every single time.

Sure you can start remembering the page number in the phone book, and approximate location of it, and well simply remember the phone number over time, but that's you doing caching

[Darren]

No.

Caching is storing frequently used files in memory (RAM or equivalent of) to be accessed quickly.

Indexing is creating a list of files with locations so that they can be found quicker on an HDD or in a storage ecosystem (RAID, or what have you like JBOD).

 

This. Question answered.

[IzMike]

Well thanks guys!