How vuejs knows the depenedencies of computed property for caching?

I will address only the specific question how does vue.js know which dependencies affect which computed property?

The simple answer is that each time vue evaluates a computed property it creates a map of all the reactive properties that were accessed in the span of that call. The next time any of these reactive properties change they will trigger a reevaluation of the computed property.

If during the most recent evaluation of a computed property, one of its reactive dependencies is never reached (maybe because it is within the non-traveled path of an if/else construct), subsequent changes to that reactive property will not trigger a reevaluation of the computed property.

Observe this behavior by modifying the two reactive properties in this fiddle (by simply typing in their corresponding input boxes). A few things to note:

• the called computed property is evaluated once on document load (it’s triggered because it’s rendered in the template).
• because the path is set to 1 the reactive property that will be mapped as a dependency is val1. As a result it will be the only one that can trigger a reevaluation of called when it changes. The value of val2 can also change but will not have the same effect on called, even though it’s clearly present in the function.
• When you click on the “Change Path” button, path is toggled from 1 to 2.
• right after the path switch, note that a change to val1 will affect called only once more. Because path has been set to 2 prior to that last reevaluation, val1 will not be reachable and will not be mapped as a dependency of called any longer. Subsequent changes to its value won’t trigger a reevaluation of called from that point on. But then val2 has now been mapped as a dependency of called and changes to it trigger the reevaluation the same way they did for val1 earlier. It will be so until the next path toggle from 2 back to 1.

Here’s the code.

let path=1
let count=0
const vm=new Vue({
  el:"#app",
  data:{
         val1:null,
         val2:null,
  },
  computed: {
       called: function(){

            if (path==1){
              this.val1
            }
            if (path==2){
                this.val2
            }
            return "I was just called "+ ++count +" times"
       }
  },
  methods: {
    changePath(){
        path = path==2 ? 1 : 2
    }
  }
})

and corresponding template

<div id="app">
  <input v-model="val1"/> {{val1}}
  <br>
  <input v-model="val2"/> {{val2}}
  <br>
  <button @click="changePath">change path</button>
  <br>
  {{ called }}
</div>