On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 02:07, Kelly Hallman wrote:
> Consider this method:
>
> function xyz() {
> return $this->data = unserialize($this->serial); }
>
> A few assumptions:
> - Resultant data large enough to warrant discussion of efficiency
> - I always want to store the unserialized data into the object
> - The return value is only needed sometimes
>
> If I only need to grab the return value on occassion, what is the
> overhead of returning the value, if it's discarded most of the time?
>
> Example:
> $obj->xyz(); // method returns data, but nothing is done with it
>
> Same difference?
> Or better to break this out and only use return when needed?
>
> Appreciate any expert responses. I don't know enough about the internals
> of PHP to know the implications of this... thank you!
Overhead is minimal since PHP doesn't actually copy the contents of the
container until an attempt to modify it is made. At which time the
contents are only actually copied if the internal reference count is
greater than 0. Generally this means it won't be copied since your
returning function will no longer be referencing it. This is not to be
confused with references as programmers work with them in scripts
themselves.
Cheers,
Rob.
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