biggest difference: http://php.net/print print() returns 1, always - which means it's returning a value http://php.net/echo doesn't return anything Sara Golemon's "how long is a piece of string" blog post (http://blog.libssh2.org/index.php?/archives/28-How-long-is-a-piece-of-string.html which appears to be down or something right now) I believe shows the different opcodes (using VLD - http://pecl.php.net/package/vld) This is a micro-level optimization. I believe echo is "faster" or "less intensive" because it does not need to return a value, but on modern CPUs saving a couple ops is probably not that big of a deal (even thousands of them) - I think the general consensus is "there is really no difference" last I saw. Only very very small optimizations. On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Jim Lucas <lists@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Brandon Rampersad wrote: >> Hello guys, i was just doing some testing and was wondring if echo is faster >> than print or print_r. I think since echo is a language construct and >> print_r is a function, echo is faster. >> >> Please let me know. >> >> Thanks >> > > People in the past have said that echo and print as actually the same call > within PHP core system. I have never dug through the core code that makes up > PHP so I cannot confirm this claim. > > print_r on the other hand is a totally different thing. It takes and processes > strings, arrays, objects, etc... So, with that said, it will be much slower. It > has to detect what type of object it is and then deal with all the pieces. And > then in the end, output everything to the screen. > > -- > Jim Lucas > > A: Maybe because some people are too annoyed by top-posting. > Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)? > A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. > Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
