Size of files sent to browser

tovince

Hi everyone:

Consider the following hypothetical:

You have one PHP page that is 25KB in size.
This page contains 10 separate functions.
At any one time that a user hits the page from her browser,
only one of the functions is used. Let's say that that
function, by itself, is about 3KB in size.

When the user hits the page with her browser, does the entire 25KB get sent down the pipe? Or does only the 3KB of the function in use get sent?

Did that even make any sense? I'm not sure if I'm asking the question in the right way.

Essentially, I'm wondering if you have one large PHP file that is split up into specific functions, does that whole file get sent to a browser everytime or only the functions in use at any given time?

Thanks in advance,
--tovince

IWeb

Hello,

When you are using functions in PHP these functions are parsed and compiled on the server. Only output data is sent to the browser.

e.g.

function (){
echo ("Hello");
}

only sends the string "hello" to your webbrowser 😉

tovince

Thanks for the quick response, IWeb!

So, if I understand correctly, you could theoretically
have a huge 1000KB PHP file on the server, but
if the user is only accessing one of the functions that, say,
is 3KB in size on its own, the server will only send the 3KB to
the browser. So, as far as bandwidth is concerned
(from an ISP's perspective), you'd only be using
3KB for that particular action.

Do I have it right?

Thanks again!
These phpbuilder.com boards are profoundly helpful to me.
So, thanks to the phpbuilder.com team, too, for making this all possible.

Best,
--Vince

mtimdog

Correct, but having php parse through unnecessary functions will slow down the script. You could easily break off the script into smaller repositories of functions.