Redis Command Cheatsheet

Q: Is the Redis KEYS command safe in production?

No. KEYS blocks Redis until all matching keys are returned, which can cause severe performance issues in large databases. Use SCAN instead in production.

Q: What do EXPIRE and TTL do in Redis?

EXPIRE sets a key's time-to-live in seconds; TTL returns the remaining time. -1 means no expiry, -2 means the key does not exist.

Q: Does Redis Pub/Sub support message persistence?

No. Pub/Sub is fire-and-forget — messages are not persisted. If a client is offline, messages are lost. For persistent messaging, use Redis Streams or a dedicated message queue.

Q: What are the risks of FLUSHALL?

FLUSHALL deletes all keys from all databases in the current Redis instance. The operation is irreversible. In production, back up data with SAVE or BGSAVE first.

Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, and message broker. This cheatsheet summarizes the most commonly used Redis commands, grouped by data type and function for quick reference.

Updated: 2026-07-17·35 commands

Overview

Redis (Remote Dictionary Server) is an in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, and message broker. This cheatsheet covers the most commonly used Redis commands organized by data type.

Quick Start

``bash redis-cli ping # Test connection redis-cli # Enter interactive mode``

Refer to the command table below for detailed usage.

Basic Ops(11)

Command	Level	Example
`SET key value [NX\|XX] [EX seconds] [PX milliseconds]` Set the value of a key, with optional NX (only if not exists), XX (only if exists), EX (seconds), PX (milliseconds)	Basic	`SET user:1001 "alice" EX 3600 NX`
`GET key` Get the value of a key	Basic	`GET user:1001`
`DEL key [key ...]` Delete one or more keys	Basic	`DEL user:1001 session:abc`
`EXISTS key [key ...]` Check if one or more keys exist, returns the count of existing keys	Basic	`EXISTS user:1001 session:abc`
`TYPE key` Return the type of the value stored at a key	Basic	`TYPE user:1001`
`EXPIRE key seconds` Set a key time to live in seconds	Basic	`EXPIRE cache:page 300`
`TTL key` Get the remaining time to live of a key in seconds. -1 means no expiry, -2 means key does not exist	Basic	`TTL cache:page`
`RENAME key newkey` Rename a key, overwrites the destination if it already exists	Intermediate	`RENAME user:1001 user:1001-backup`
`KEYS pattern` Find all keys matching the given pattern. WARNING: blocks Redis on large datasets in production	Expert	`KEYS user:*`
`INFO [section]` Get information and statistics about the Redis server, optionally filtered by section (server, memory, stats)	Intermediate	`INFO memory`
`FLUSHALL [ASYNC]` Delete all keys from all databases. Extremely dangerous in production; always back up first. Supports ASYNC mode	Expert	`FLUSHALL ASYNC`

Strings(4)

Command	Level	Example
`MSET key value [key value ...]` Set multiple key-value pairs atomically	Intermediate	`MSET user:1001 alice user:1002 bob`
`MGET key [key ...]` Get the values of multiple keys atomically	Intermediate	`MGET user:1001 user:1002`
`INCR key` Increment the integer value of a key by one (atomic)	Basic	`INCR counter:visits`
`DECR key` Decrement the integer value of a key by one (atomic)	Basic	`DECR counter:stock`

Lists(6)

Command	Level	Example
`LPUSH key value [value ...]` Prepend one or more values to a list (left side)	Basic	`LPUSH logs:app error-timeout`
`RPUSH key value [value ...]` Append one or more values to a list (right side)	Basic	`RPUSH queue:tasks task123`
`LPOP key` Remove and return the first element of a list (left side)	Basic	`LPOP queue:tasks`
`RPOP key` Remove and return the last element of a list (right side)	Basic	`RPOP queue:tasks`
`LLEN key` Get the length of a list	Basic	`LLEN queue:tasks`
`LRANGE key start stop` Get a range of elements from a list, inclusive of start and stop. Use negative numbers to count from the end	Basic	`LRANGE queue:tasks 0 -1`

Sets(4)

Command	Level	Example
`SADD key member [member ...]` Add one or more members to a set	Basic	`SADD roles:admin user:1001 user:1002`
`SMEMBERS key` Return all members of a set	Basic	`SMEMBERS roles:admin`
`SINTER key [key ...]` Return the intersection of multiple sets	Intermediate	`SINTER roles:admin roles:editor`
`SUNION key [key ...]` Return the union of multiple sets	Intermediate	`SUNION roles:admin roles:editor`

Hashes(4)

Command	Level	Example
`HSET key field value [field value ...]` Set the value of a field in a hash. Overwrites if the field already exists	Basic	`HSET user:1001 name alice age 30`
`HGET key field` Get the value of a field in a hash	Basic	`HGET user:1001 name`
`HGETALL key` Get all fields and values in a hash	Basic	`HGETALL user:1001`
`HDEL key field [field ...]` Delete one or more fields from a hash	Basic	`HDEL user:1001 age`

Sorted Sets(4)

Command	Level	Example
`ZADD key score member [score member ...]` Add one or more members to a sorted set, or update the score of existing members	Intermediate	`ZADD leaderboard 100 alice 95 bob`
`ZRANGE key start stop [WITHSCORES]` Return members of a sorted set by index range (ascending order by score)	Intermediate	`ZRANGE leaderboard 0 9 WITHSCORES`
`ZREVRANGE key start stop [WITHSCORES]` Return members of a sorted set by index range (descending order by score)	Intermediate	`ZREVRANGE leaderboard 0 9 WITHSCORES`
`ZRANK key member` Determine the index of a member in a sorted set (ascending order, 0-based)	Intermediate	`ZRANK leaderboard alice`

Pub/Sub(2)

Command	Level	Example
`PUBLISH channel message` Post a message to a channel	Intermediate	`PUBLISH news:updates maintenance-2am`
`SUBSCRIBE channel [channel ...]` Subscribe to one or more channels to receive messages. Note: the client enters listening mode after subscribing	Intermediate	`SUBSCRIBE news:updates alerts`

FAQ

Is the Redis KEYS command safe in production?

What do EXPIRE and TTL do in Redis?

Does Redis Pub/Sub support message persistence?

What are the risks of FLUSHALL?

This cheatsheet is compiled from official tool documentation. Last updated: 2026-07-17.