Question about classes

Davidc316

(I hope this isn't a stupid question)

Let's imagine that you have a PHP application that has lots of classes. In each of those classes there are lots and lots of functions for doing different things (checking forms, date and time calculations, instructions for making nuclear bombs etc). Let's further imagine that you have some webpages that might want to use some parts of some of those classes.

The question is this...

When you include all those classes at the top of your PHP script does PHP read and take on board all of the functions and what nought (surely that would really slow things down) OR does PHP merely keep a note of where the classes are incase it needs to reference them at some point?

I'm just trying to figure out if it would be foolish to include lots of classes at the start of a PHP script, even if most of that stuff won't be used.

Thanks!

laserlight

Davidc316 wrote:
When you include all those classes at the top of your PHP script does PHP read and take on board all of the functions and what nought (surely that would really slow things down)

The PHP interpreter would certainly need to open the include files and parse those classes, but whether that will have a negligible or actual adverse impact on your script's performance depends on the situation.

Davidc316 wrote:
does PHP merely keep a note of where the classes are incase it needs to reference them at some point?

It has to check the syntax of your class definitions as well, so it has to do more than just take note of which class is defined in which file.

Davidc316 wrote:
I'm just trying to figure out if it would be foolish to include lots of classes at the start of a PHP script, even if most of that stuff won't be used.

Generally, it is foolish to include what you definitely will not use. Look into autoloading.

NogDog

Also, if your classes contain "lots and lots of functions for doing different things", that may be an indication that your classes are not focused narrowly enough and may need some re-factoring.