Which method is optimal?

[Anon]

I have lots of database-driven PHP code that ends up shoving the results in tables. I was wondering about a fairly simple thing the other day but didn't know the answer and am looking for opinions.

I have 10 lines of output and lines 1, 5 and 10 have output that uses variables but the remaining lines simply have printf's or echo's of straight HTML.

Is it more optimal to go:

<?php
printf("line 1", variable);
?>
html-line 2
html-line 3
html-line 4
<?php
printf("line 5", variable);
?>
html-line 6
html-line 7
html-line 8
html-line 9
<?php
printf("line 10", variable);
?>

OR

<?php
printf("line 1", variable);
echo html-line 2
echo html-line 3
echo html-line 4
printf("line 5", variable);
echo html-line 6
echo html-line 7
echo html-line 8
echo html-line 9
printf("line 10", variable);
?>

Just wondering...

Robin Smith

[[deleted]]

Benchmark time.

It's very hard to say.
one method uses more php statements, the other stops and starts php parsing several times.
Either way I don't think you'll notice the difference in speed in normal use.

[brandonschnell]

run em both 10,000 times and see which is faster.

i'd bet on the first example tho.

[kiwi_uk]

The first may not be faster, thouhgh it should be, but uses less CPU time because the bulk of code is passed out straight thry the web server instead of passing thru the PHP parser - the parse doesnt take the power to say "ooh this isnt php, byebye"

[[deleted]]

Just out of curiosity I did a small benchmark on a single P2-366 with 64MB, running apache 1.3.14 and php 4.0.4pl1 (yes, ancient I know, but I'm a lazy bugger) without the zend optimizer, accessing the server from an AMD athlon 1.2G running netscape on w2k, through a private 100Mbit halfduplex connection.

At 10 iterations (time in seconds)
0.00070691109 - First
0.0004979372 - Second

100 iterations
0.0092380047 - First
0.013784051 - Second

1000 iterations
0.13782001 - First
0.12125802 - Second

10k iterations
1.5036219 - First
1.3198509 - Second

100k iterations
14.725201 - First
12.729824 - Second

this is the script I used:
$i=100; // number of iterations
$variable='hello'; // set some var to use in printf

$iStart = microtime(); // mark the start time
for ($t=0;$t<$i;$t++)
{
printf("line 1%s", $variable);
?>
html-line 2
html-line 3
html-line 4
<?php
printf("line 5%s", $variable);
?>
html-line 6
html-line 7
html-line 8
html-line 9
<?php
printf("line 10%s", $variable);
};

$iStop = microtime(); //mark the end time
// Calculate the time difference
$aParts = split(' ',$iStart.' '.$iStop);
$sFirstRun = ($aParts[2]+$aParts[3])-($aParts[0]+$aParts[1]);

$iStart = microtime(); // mark the start time

for ($t=0;$t<$i;$t++)
{
printf("line 1%s", $variable);
echo "html-line 2";
echo "html-line 3";
echo "html-line 4";
printf("line 5%s", $variable);
echo "html-line 6";
echo "html-line 7";
echo "html-line 8";
echo "html-line 9";
printf("line 10%s", $variable);
};

$iStop = microtime(); //mark the end time

// Calculate the time difference
$aParts = split(' ',$iStart.' '.$iStop);
$sSecondRun = ($aParts[2]+$aParts[3])-($aParts[0]+$aParts[1]);

// Echo results
echo '<BR>';
echo $sFirstRun.' - First <BR>';
echo $sSecondRun.' - Second<BR>';

exit;

[dannys]

Personally i'd still go with the 1st method - i've lost count of the number of times i've forgotten to escape my quotes!

[Anon]

The other thing I should point out is that typically all of the output is in tables. I.e. the HTML-LINE's are <TD's and <TR's, as is the PHP generated line.

This may affect timing issues as it is all part of one big table.

I think though, that the bottom line is it doesn't make too much of a difference technically, but procedurally the best method is to only PHP when using the pwoer of PHP.

Anyone disagree with this statement?

[[deleted]]

I think though, that the bottom line is it doesn't make too much of
a difference technically, but procedurally the best method is to only PHP when
using the power of PHP.

Anyone disagree with this statement?

Yes, I completely disagree.

If there is no performance loss, you should always choose the most understandable method, the method that is easiest to read.

Personnaly I find this:
<?
$a="hello";
?>
<table>
<?
for ($t=0;$t<100;$t++)
{
?>
<tr><TD><? echo $t.$a); ?></td></tr>
<?
}
?>
</table>

much more difficult to read than

<?
$a="hello"
echo "<table>";
for ($t=0;$t<100;$t++)
{
echo '<TR><TD>'.$t.$a.'</td></tr>';
}
echo "</table>";
?>

[dannys]

Yeah, and like I said before, you don't have to escape every quote you put in.

[kparker]

Sure, I'll disagree somewhat. I personally find the interspersed stuff even harder to read than code that full of escaped quotes, so I'd vote for a modified method. Yes, it's great to keep your php and html separate, but if you have to embed the PHP inside html for stuff like forms, then do it in one big php block.

[[deleted]]

If you use proper concatenation you don't have quote problems either way :-)

[dannys]

Ok, how could I write the following without escaping any quotes?

<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="INPUT" onFocus="documment.input.value=''" VALUE="Search!">

[dannys]

Surely the main thing is that, with PHP, we have a choice, unlike Perl.

[[deleted]]

Picky picky picky... 🙂

[kiwi_uk]

you cant. whats the probelm wit escaping kwotes?

[[deleted]]

It's easy to make mistakes.

What's the problem with typing english? 🙂

[dannys]

Sorry, couldn't resist it 🙂

[[deleted]]

hehe...