A question of speed

[ChilliBoy]

Hi,

I like anyones thoughts on if and why the following two case will differ greatly in execution speed. My options are:

1/. Have a number of different scripts (approx 10) which are essentially the same, but with slight differences in relation to set variables with each script. All the scripts are called to execute when the page is opened.

2/. Have 1 script which is executed x number of times (same number as individual scripts in above case), but each time the script is called, a passed variable, sets up the correct set variables (as case 1) via switch statements.

Now, basically I'm asking as I don't exactly know the process by which the scripts are executed.

In my head I'm thinking 1/. must be faster as the processor should be able to execute the 10 different scripts at approx the same time, but with case 2/. I'm thinking that that the processor may not be able to execute the same script a multiple of x number times (with different passed variables) at the same time, but must do each one sequentially.

However, as unknowledgable as I am, I have no doubt that my thinking could well be flawed.

[Skunk]

AFAIK PHP isn't threaded i.e it can't support running lots of stuff at the same time. So I'm pretty sure the two things would run at the same speed as one way it would run 10 scripts one after the other, while the other way it would run the same script ten times over.

[Kevin Yank]

That's an interesting point you raise, Skunk. I'm thinking that PHP is probably as threaded as the Web server using it, so if Apache is running with 20 threads handling 20 requests for PHP pages, those 20 threads are running code from the Apache PHP module. Boom: threaded PHP.

This is just an informed guess, however. We'd need to consult someone with a knowledge of the inner workings of Apache and the PHP module.

[ChilliBoy]

I'd be very interested to find out the answer to this, as I wish to decide which of my two methods are best.

Primarily I'm after speed, but if there is very little difference between the two methods, then the 'one fits all' script would be preferable for maintenance purposes.

[Graeme]

i would say they are both the same speed

[HotDog]

The idea of having just one script file is very interesting to me. My question is how are you passing the variable to the script page. My guess would be include("variables.php?$var1"); . Is this right?

I'd like to know since I may use it my self.

[ChilliBoy]

I'm passing various variables to various scripts in various ways:

as a hidden field within forms,
just declare a variable before including a file,
pass it within the url,
also do it the way you mention.

My personnal favourite idea I can up with is using $PHP_SELF,

You can use this so that you don't ever need to declare any variables at all - as long as you set up careful URL.

$PHP_SELF - bust it into pieces, extract a piece that now forms your variable that then gets passed on.