Better to store miscellaneous metadata in database or calculate on each access

Question

I have a number of attributes I need for various page loads and other backend tasks, and I'm debating on whether storing these things in a database or calculating them on the fly.

For instance, if there are files that users can upload, and you want to track the size, space taken, format, etc. would it be better to calculate these things once and store them along with the location of the file in the database, or just grab the file each time and get the file attributes manually?

Another use case is shopping cart items. Is it better to calculate the price of an item and store that in a row with the shopping cart table, or calculate the given price each time a page loads. In this case, changes to the price based on site-wide sales, discounts, markups, etc. would not be reflected once the item has been added to the cart unless the prices are updated through another method when sales/discounts/markups are applied. This isn't the best example, but hopefully you understand the idea; maybe you have a better example.

In both of these examples, the source material is available to get the answers from which is key to the question. Obviously, one has a lot overhead for every page load would could be a lot depending on the situation, however the other seems to have less dependence on database integrity in terms of making sure it is always accurate and up-to-date (which I think I prefer). I'm not looking for a specific answer here, because I'm sure it will depend on many variables, but I am looking for a best practice or a method to determine the best solution.

NOTE: This is a similar question but has gotten very little response and no answers.

Answer 1

For so many reasons I think it's best to store all attributes (that you mentioned) in the database.

1. Better search results for user

2. Easy to maintain for all platforms (web, mobile, voice enabled assistants etc) because you are avoiding all the conversion logic by storing in database.

3. Faster loading on any kind of device irrespective of network speed and client device capability. Today most of the companies prefer storing redundant data if it helps making service better.

4. Stored data can be used for machine learning, data analytics etc.

Things like converting currency, timezone can be done outside of database if necessary. But main copy of the attributes you mentioned are suitable to be stored in database.