PHP Objects vs Arrays — Performance comparison while iterating

Question

I have a huge amount of PHP objects for a neural network for which I have to iterate over and perform some maths on. I was wondering if I would be better off using an associ

Answer 1

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:

+---------------------------+---------+-----------------+
|           Test            | Memory  |      Time       |
+---------------------------+---------+-----------------+
| Array                     | 2305848 | 9.5637300014496 |
| stdClass                  | 2505824 | 11.212271928787 |
| SomeClass                 |  963640 | 11.558017015457 | <-- *
| AnotherClass              | 2563136 | 10.872401237488 |
| SetterClass               |  905848 | 59.879059791565 |
| SetterClassDefineReturn   |  905792 | 60.484427213669 |
| SetterClassSetFromParam   |  745792 | 62.783381223679 |
| SetterClassSetKeyAndParam |  745824 | 72.155715942383 |
+---------------------------+---------+-----------------+
* - Winner winner chicken dinner

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.

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($i) {
  echo '
';
  print_r($i);
  echo '
';
  echo '
';
}

$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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';

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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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 '
Time Taken (seconds): '.(microtime(true) - $t0).'
';
echo '
Memory: '.($fin-$inicio).'
';
p($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
)