[SOLVED] Quick PHP question

[Brenden Frank]

Which is the best method or does it even matter? I know this example isn't very practical but I've seen times where I'd like to simply store all my outputs as a string then do one big final output at the end. However I could see if this string is getting big that this could cause overhead. Or would echo do about the same?

 

$output = "";

for ($i=0;$i<50;$i++) //loop and create output string
{
   $output .= "Something"; //gather everything into a string
}
echo $output; //output string

 

or

 

for ($i=0;$i<50;$i++) //loop and create output string
{
   echo "Something"; //output the string as it comes
}

 

I like the output method because it allows me to very specifically monitor what is being outputted and is of course the most useful for functions with return values.

[DarkSuperHero]

I like to put it into a variable if I'm doing something else to it, like double checking its contents or formatting..

 

using Zend profiles, both took about the same to run...averaging out at .12ms...

 

[Brenden Frank]

Perfect, that's all I needed to know. Thank you very much.

[DarkSuperHero]

<?php
$output = "";

for ($i=0;$i<10000;$i++) //loop and create output string
{
   $output .= "Something"; //gather everything into a string
}
echo $output; //output string

this code took 10.362ms to run on avarage

 

or

 

<?php
for ($i=0;$i<10000;$i++) //loop and create output string
{
   echo "Something"; //output the string as it comes
}

this code took 11.45ms seconds to run on avarage

 

used Zend Profiler for both...:-) this is probably a better comparison,

[Brenden Frank]

Ah, perfect. It's even faster.