PHP and Echo
As any beginner PHP could tell you, the echo function outputs data to the screen (or command line depending on how you're using PHP). Some, however, may not know that PHP's "echo()" isn't really a function at all. From PHP.net:
"echo() is not actually a function (it is a language construct), so you are not required to use parentheses with it. echo() (unlike some other language constructs) does not behave like a function, so it cannot always be used in the context of a function. Additionally, if you want to pass more than one parameter to echo(), the parameters must not be enclosed within parentheses."
So, instead of traditionally coding this...
echo("The MD5 of $text is: ".md5($text)."!");
...you can actually do this...
echo "The MD5 of $text is: ",md5($text),'!';
In fact, separating strings with commas is faster than concatenation! With a name like echo, it should be a bit crazy, right?
![CSS vs. JS Animation: Which is Faster?]()
How is it possible that JavaScript-based animation has secretly always been as fast — or faster — than CSS transitions? And, how is it possible that Adobe and Google consistently release media-rich mobile sites that rival the performance of native apps?
This article serves as a point-by-point...
![Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos]()
David asked me if I'd be up for a guest post picking out some of my favorite Pens from CodePen. A daunting task! There are so many! I managed to pick a few though that have blown me away over the past few months. If you...
![Add Styles to Console Statements]()
I was recently checking out Google Plus because they implement some awesome effects. I opened the console and same the following message:
WARNING!
Using this console may allow attackers to impersonate you and steal your information using an attack called Self-XSS.
Do not enter or paste code that you...
![Dress Up Your Select Elements with FauxSelect]()
I received an email from Ben Delaney a few weeks back about an interesting MooTools script he had written. His script was called FauxSelect and took a list of elements (UL / LI) and transformed it into a beautiful Mac-like SELECT element.
Whoa the comma thing is a mindfreak. That saves some concatenated html output hell.
“In fact, separating strings with commas is faster than concatenation!”
I’m not sure what you mean by this? How is it faster?
I don’t think I have ever used parentheses with the echo. It’s weird to me to see it done like that.
@deef: It’s faster because PHP doesn’t need to continuously concatenate string upon string — commas allow for “Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” instead of “……….BOOM!”.
@mark: I was high-horse about it for a while. To me it was a function so “echo()” was “best form.” Foolish, I was.
I ran a quick test to see if I would notice some speed differences using the commas, noticed about 10% output speed increase in the test script. Funny… didn’t kow about it. Thank you!
Well, I always use echo; I didn’t actually know you could do echo(), but no matter. Not a function? Strange.
I read about the comma versus dot thing on an optimization post. According to this guy’s tests is was nowhere near 10%, but commas were still faster nonetheless.
http://making-the-web.com/2007/08/24/tips-for-faster-php-scripts/
I always hated the concatenation! but didnt know that commas do it faster.
Thanks
Find an interesting PHP-Benchmark.
Somewhere down the page, there is also an echo-Benchmark.
Seems like commas are not allways faster.
http://www.phpbench.com/
Find => Found
allways => always
It was to early in the morning, sorry! :-)
http://www.phpbench.com/
The author only compares echo with commas/periods using either all string or all variable. I’d be interested in seeing a comparison using some combination of both variables and commas.. something like
$a = ‘bbbbbb’;
echo ‘aaaaaa’,$b,’aaaaaa’,$b;
vs
echo ‘aaaaaa’.$b.’aaaaaa’.$b;