What is the difference between is_a and instanceof?

Question

I am aware that instanceof is an operator and that is_a is a method.

Is the method slower in performance? What would you prefer to use?

Answer 1

Here is performance results of is_a() and instanceof:

Test name       Repeats         Result          Performance     
instanceof      10000           0.028343 sec    +0.00%
is_a()          10000           0.043927 sec    -54.98%

Test source is here.