[RESOLVED] Does size matter? Big php files Vs. lots of small ones

ManWithNoName

Hi, I was wondering...

Is it better to have one big PHP file that focuses on a specific task, or a lot of different (smaller) PHP files that combines to one PHP file?

Does it make any difference?

This question crossed my mind when I read somewhere that it is better to have few JavaScript files (so that there are fewer server request, or something, which equals to faster loading of page). I was wondering if the same can be applied to PHP...

paulnaj

Hi,

Suppose you have one big PHP file with the code for a whole website in it. Home page code, Contact us code etc.

When you're on the home page, the PHP parser will still have to parse the 'Contact Us' code even though it won't be displayed.

My solution would be to have a 'filtering' page (index.php) that decides to 'require' the home page (home.php) or the contact page (contact.php).

I would keep the 'common' code (headers, footers, menus etc) either in index.php or if it became very long, I might even transfer thes to individual files.

There's no real 'best' way, but the larger a site is, the more useful these separations become.

Hope that helps.

ManWithNoName

I agree with you; that was how I was thinking and is doing -- hoping is correct.

However, I just thought to check if there was any downsides (i.e. resource demanding issues ) with it (i.e. using require).

paulnaj

Hi,

I suppose there must be an extra bit of work per 'require', but it would be massively offset by the reduction in parsing-time of the redundant code.

For me though it's being able to organise the files in such a way that I can handle large sites as easily (at least in principle!!) as small sites.

ManWithNoName

Well, you are just saying all the things I want to hear flatter 😉

I'm leaving the thread open for a little while longer to see if anyone doesn't agree, but I you sure made me feel a lot better on how I organize my codes, thanks!

NogDog

Without doing some detailed testing, it's really hard to say what will perform best. In fact, the same test might give different preferences depending on the environment where it is executed. For instance, a host with advanced disk drives with very short seek and lag times along with a lot of memory dedicated to disk caching might perform quite well with the "many files" approach. Another server with high-speed CPUs, super-fast data bus, etc., etc. might be able to parse a large PHP file so quickly that one large file with huge chunks of code that won't acutally be used might process faster than one that does several includes to just process the code it needs for a given circumstance.

My general recommendation is to code things in what seems the most logical way that will provide ease of code readability and maintenance. If maximized performace becomes an issue, then the only way to really be sure you are using the best technique for your environment is to do some metered testing.

HalfaBee

I did a fix on a postnuke site that had a 12,000 line pnuser.php
It had hundreds of different functions that were not needed for every page.
By seperating out the code into per page files and requiring as needed, it sped the page generation from 60-90 secs down to only a few secs.

ManWithNoName

Great input people! Thanks!

I think in my case the best thing to do is to keep the code "cut up".

I believe I got my question answered.

Thanks again everyone!

Double_M

I know this thread is resolved, but i thought i would make an addition.

As i have been making rather large websites recently, i have tried a few different ways to make the site work faster.

For example one website i had a single file that held all functions, this file was around 900kb.

On another site i had split this file into seperate function files and include/require them as need be.

You can definatly tell the difference between loading times of a 900kb file to seperate 40kb files on pages.

Just to reinforce what you have already said 🙂

ManWithNoName

Thanks for your input!