ok, suggestions now!

Anon

Hi ppl!
I'm learning php and mysql, and now, my head is full of answers!
ok, let's ask.
i can handle dates using php, but i can handle dates using mysql, too. (mysql has powerfull date/time functions, you know!)
yet, i can handle passwords and encription functions by php, but i can handle the same thing with mysql functions about password, too.
These are only few examples ....
There are many tasks that i could face using php functions or, at the same time, using mysql functions ...

What about performance? it's better code in php or using db functions??!
Who takes less system load to accomplish the same task, for example subtract 2 dates ...?

I hope you can clear my confused ideas! tnx!
-Paolo

Anon

Hum, ... my head full of answers ...??!
Really confused! 😉)

[deleted]

It depends completely on what you are doing with the dates and the passwords.

If you want to sort by dates, let the database do it.
If you want to calculate a date based on another date, let PHP do it (obviously)

And for all the other cases, just try it and see which is faster. 🙂

jesran

A good rule of thumb for me is to stay away from database functions. They lead to less portable code. For example, if you one day decide to switch to Oracle instead from MySQL (I'm assuming that your using MySQL), then your PHP code is no good.

Let the database store data and little else.

Good Luck.

[deleted]

That's only partially valid.
MySQL does have some "mysql_only" things,
but it would be quite foolish to do complex database things in PHP just because one day you might change databases.
Especially from MySQL to oracle, because Oracle has a sh*tload more functions than mysql, it's likely to be much easier to port from mysql to oracle than the other way around.

Portability is nice, but I wouldn't spend too much time porting the database functions to PHP (because that's what you are doing if you don't let the database do it)

Anon

Vincent, i agree with you. i've looked at http://www.mysql.com/information/crash-me.php for crashme test, and i noticed that there are too much differences between a db server and another.
i get a comparison between mysql(3.23.25), pgsql7 and oracle8.1.6 .... the hell!

Thanks vincent, thanks gerald for the speedy answers.