You can always check the PHP-source code for micro-performance-features like that.
But at a first glance, no doing ['value'] will not be faster because PHP needs to do a Lookup on where to find ['value'] even thougn a hashtable lookup should be O(1), that's not guaranteed. There's more overhead when you use Text-index.
If the object only contains 1 variables that you need to access which is value, there's more overhead in using an object.
You haven't shown us the code for how $object->value works, as it could be that backend it is an array in which case theoretically using an array would be faster as it involves one less function call. The cost of doing the lookup will probably be huge compared to the function call. If it is a variable, there is going to be very little diffrence as objects and arrays in PHP have a very similar implementation.
If you are looking at optimizations, you will need to profile to check where the majority of the time is being used. I suspect that changing objects to arrays will make no major difference.
I see this is kind of an old post so I thought I'll update it.
here are my codes and stats, done on Zend CE 5.3.21
I tried to test the whole thing, storing info and pulling it back.
for ($i=1; $i<1000000; $i++) {
$a = get_one();
$b = $a->v;
$b = $a->k;
}
function get_one() {
$ret = new test();
$ret->v = 1;
$reb->k = 1;
return $ret;
}
class test {
public $v;
public $k;
}
V3 : takes 1.98 sec (note that the constructor improves the performance)
for ($i=1; $i<1000000; $i++) {
$a = get_one();
$b = $a->v;
$b = $a->k;
}
function get_one() {
return new test(1,1);
}
class test {
public $v;
public $k;
public function __construct($v, $k) {
$this->v = $v;
$this->k = $k;
}
}
Class uses less memory than Arrays. (about 30-40% less!!)
ps: as a note, if the class is defined but the members then, the use of this class is slower. It also uses more memory. Apparently the secret is to define the members
Update
I updated from php 5.4 to php 5.5 (5.5.12 x86 windows).
If Arrays and Classs are the same performance, I think use objects of predefined classes for storing/passing business data would make our program more logic and the code more readability.
Today, with modern ide like Eclipse, Netbean ... it's very convenient to know what info an objects (of predefined class) is carrying but arrays are not so
With array
function registerCourse(array $student) {
// Right here I don't know how a $student look like unless doing a print_r() or var_dump()
....
}
With object
class Studen {
private $_name, $_age;
public function getAge() {}
public function getName() {}
..
}
function registerCourse(Studen $student) {
// Right here I just Ctrl+Space $student or click "Student" and I know I can get name or age from it
...
}
Well I got curious today based off of @magallanes benchmark, so I expanded it a bit. I upped some of the for loops to really highlight the gaps between things. This is running on Apache 2.4, mod_php, and PHP 7.2.
Here's a summary table to make the results easier:
Below is the modified script. I wanted to test setting properties with methods and defining types. I was very surprised to find that using setter methods adds a significant hit to the code. Now granted this is a very very specific performance test where many apps will not even hit this. But if you have a site that handles 1000/reqs/second with 1000 classes that are used with 1000s of objects, you can see how this may affect performance.
<?php
set_time_limit(500);
class SomeClass {
public $aaa;
public $bbb;
public $ccc;
}
class AnotherClass {
}
class SetterClass {
public $aaa;
public $bbb;
public $ccc;
public function setAAA() {
$this->aaa = 'aaa';
}
public function setBBB() {
$this->bbb = 'bbb';
}
public function setCCC() {
$this->ccc = $this->aaa.$this->bbb;
}
}
class SetterClassDefineReturn {
public $aaa;
public $bbb;
public $ccc;
public function setAAA():void {
$this->aaa = 'aaa';
}
public function setBBB():void {
$this->bbb = 'bbb';
}
public function setCCC():void {
$this->ccc = $this->aaa.$this->bbb;
}
}
class SetterClassSetFromParam {
public $aaa;
public $bbb;
public $ccc;
public function setAAA(string $val): void {
$this->aaa = $val;
}
public function setBBB(string $val): void {
$this->bbb = $val;
}
public function setCCC(string $val): void {
$this->ccc = $val;
}
}
class SetterClassSetKeyAndParam {
public $aaa;
public $bbb;
public $ccc;
public function set(string $key, string $val): void {
$this->{$key} = $val;
}
}
function p($i) {
echo '<pre>';
print_r($i);
echo '</pre>';
echo '<hr>';
}
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new SomeClass();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->aaa = 'aaa';
$z->bbb = 'bbb';
$z->ccc = $z->aaa.$z->bbb;
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new AnotherClass();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->aaa = 'aaa';
$z->bbb = 'bbb';
$z->ccc = $z->aaa.$z->bbb;
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new SetterClass();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->setAAA();
$z->setBBB();
$z->setCCC();
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new SetterClassDefineReturn();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->setAAA();
$z->setBBB();
$z->setCCC();
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new SetterClassSetFromParam();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->setAAA('aaa');
$z->setBBB('bbb');
$z->setCCC('aaabbb');
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new SetterClassSetKeyAndParam();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->set('aaa', 'aaa');
$z->set('bbb', 'bbb');
$z->set('ccc', 'aaabbb');
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = new stdClass();
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z->aaa = 'aaa';
$z->bbb = 'bbb';
$z->ccc = $z->aaa.$z->bbb;
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
$t0 = microtime(true);
$arraysOf=[];
$inicio=memory_get_usage();
for ($i=0; $i<5000; $i++) {
$z = [];
for ($j=0; $j<5000; $j++) {
$z['aaa'] = 'aaa';
$z['bbb'] = 'bbb';
$z['ccc'] = $z['aaa'].$z['bbb'];
}
$arraysOf[]=$z;
}
$fin=memory_get_usage();
echo '<p>Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'</p>';
echo '<p>Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'</p>';
p($z);
And here's the results:
Time Taken (seconds): 11.558017015457
Memory: 963640
SomeClass Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
-----
Time Taken (seconds): 10.872401237488
Memory: 2563136
AnotherClass Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 59.879059791565
Memory: 905848
SetterClass Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 60.484427213669
Memory: 905792
SetterClassDefineReturn Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 62.783381223679
Memory: 745792
SetterClassSetFromParam Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 72.155715942383
Memory: 745824
SetterClassSetKeyAndParam Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 11.212271928787
Memory: 2505824
stdClass Object
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
----
Time Taken (seconds): 9.5637300014496
Memory: 2305848
Array
(
[aaa] => aaa
[bbb] => bbb
[ccc] => aaabbb
)
To be fair it depends on what sort of data You have. The results in other answers are (more or less)* correct. I'll paste in the test code on the bottom for clarity.
The important thing here is that You can save a fair amount of memory if you use a predefined object, the trade-off is the fact that you need to define the exact structure.
I might be wrong here, I'm did not look into the PHP source but I believe that as far as PHP is concerned, everything is an array. A predefined object is just a well defined array. An interesting note is that the value type does not have an effect ie. a string value of '1' will take up the same amount of memory as a bool value of true.
Why? Well as I stated before PHP is arrays so if you have an object with a setter function what (a simplified version) PHP does is this:
Every time you execute, you do a lookup for the function key that does a lookup for a prop name, plus any validation for prop type etc. in the background. The memory savings in a predefined object come from defining an array of a set length (otherwise impossible in PHP) instead of allocating a chunk of memory.
Conclusion:
Static objects: Yey! We save memory! But if you try to add anything outside the definition it will grow larger then a stdClass.
['aaa'] into [['aaa'],['bbb']]
Arrays: If You write in PHP You better love them, even a string is an array of characters in PHP.
Objects: Objects have cool functionality, they're a wonderful way to keep your code organised, clean, modular. But as we all know "with great power...".
Finally, my test code and the '*'. people seem to forget that if You don't clean up your variables while the script is running they will remain in the memory, while it will not impact the execution time (much), it will impact the memory measurement. So while running a memory profiling unset() is your friend.