On 3/4/06, Daevid Vincent <daevid@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I'm building a fairly large project. I've been trying to follow best > practices, but I'm a bit worried about performance. Using PHP 5.1 and mySQL > 5.0. > > I have product and company classes. > > So when a user does a search of the database, is it better/faster/etc. to > return just a two dimensional associative array to populate an HTML table of > the results like: product name, product id, price, company name, company > phone, etc. (assume I'm only showing some of the total number of fields). > > Or, should my SQL method return me an array of product objects, which then > inturn contain a company object? Keeping in mind, these objects are then a > complete snapshot of the database row they represent, along with other > fields and such that are created upon instantiation. > > Does this make sense what I'm asking? > > Are these things negligible? > > Does it matter that I'm only showing say 10 fields of perhaps 50 or more > possible ones (that the classes and database would hold)? > > My gut feeling is to use an array as it seems less overhead and "faster". > However the object versions seems to be more expandable and maintainable > perhaps. Although a bit more work due to all the method calls to pull out > the stuff to display in the HTML. > > I could run timing tests, etc, but I only have like 10 products right now in > the database while I'm building, and without REAL world data, I think my > tests will be skewed. > > Lets say that I expect several thousands to a hundred thousand or so people > searching the database via the web UI when this is finally completed. I don't think you'll find much difference either way.. I wouldn't return a whole object though - lots of memory usage there for a small result set. If you return an array of data, you have to firstly turn the results into an array, then after you return it you have to go through the array again to display the results.. so you're doubling up a little. Then again - it depends on how your app is set up. Personally I use my own API to fetch data so it returns an array, then the "front" can do whatever with it (display html, display xml - doesn't matter to the API). -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
