print("hi"); .... takes forever!!

jvanv8

I have a script that loops through a multidimensional array, accessing various values, comparing them to values in a mysql database. If a match found, then the mysql values are updated. If no match, then
print("hi");

Actually, I did have the code which inserted a new row into mysql but I found that that was NOT the problem. Infact the following code times the duration it takes to output "hi"

if($not_found_in_db){
  $start_time = microtime();
  print("hi");
  $end_time = microtime();
  print("<br />This took: " . ($end_time - $start_time) . " seconds<br />");
  exit();
}

The time that is output is typically between 0.6 seconds and 0.9 seconds

Since my script may run through this loop around 50,000 times... this would take ages even without having the code that inserts into mysql! Could it be the timing code itself? If so, why would it take so long?

Any help would be great!
- John

flatpooks

have u got output buffering on?

jvanv8

Hmm... I'm not sure. How do you check or set it?
The page isn't even in html format, it just reads data from a text file and places it in a database.

flatpooks

check ur php.ini file for output buffering
using 'print()' would be affected if it is on
its a bit of a long shot but i couldnt think of anything else offhand

jvanv8

anyone know where the php.ini file is located on Mac OS Panther?

dalecosp

No "find" or "search" in that fine OS? 😃

Also, you might wanna SUTC .... 🙂

jvanv8

I searched for php.ini and it returned nothing...?
As far as SUTC, I think the actual script is too long and confusing. Maybe I'll see if I can recreate it with a simple script.

dalecosp

Ok, then ...

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Should be about the 5th line down....

jvanv8

awesome, I'll check it when I get back to work on monday.

Drakla

He he - I'm actually laughing at this because I had the same thing happen to me, when I started testing mysql performance, and it's got nothing at all to do with buffering.

It's because you're subtracting two values returned from microtime() from each other, and because it's in a frankly stupid format of "msec sec" you have to convert it for it to make sense with the ubiquitious getmicrotime();

function getmicrotime()
{ 
   list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ",microtime()); 
   return ((float)$usec + (float)$sec); 
}

I really reckong microtime should be deprecated to something sensible.

hope that works for you,
D.

jvanv8

I saw that function posted as a comment in the php manual. I actually tried both getmicrotime() and microtime() and they returned the same values so I figured they did the same thing. But apparently the calculations when using microtime() can take almost a second!?

I'll try getmicrotime() instead. - Thanks for the heads up
- John