Executing functions in parallel

Question

I have a function that needs to go over around 20K rows from an array, and apply an external script to each. This is a slow process, as PHP is waiting for the script to be e

Answer 1

you can use "PTHREADS"

very easy to install and works great on windows

download from here -> http://windows.php.net/downloads/pecl/releases/pthreads/2.0.4/

Extract the zip file and then

• move the file 'php_pthreads.dll' to php\ext\ directory.

• move the file 'pthreadVC2.dll' to php\ directory.

then add this line in your 'php.ini' file:

extension=php_pthreads.dll

save the file.

you just done :-)

now lets see example of how to use it:

class ChildThread extends Thread {
    public $data;

    public function run() {
        /* Do some expensive work */

        $this->data = 'result of expensive work';
    }
}

$thread = new ChildThread();

if ($thread->start()) {     
    /*
     * Do some expensive work, while already doing other
     * work in the child thread.
     */

    // wait until thread is finished
    $thread->join();

    // we can now even access $thread->data
}

for more information about PTHREADS read php docs here:

PHP DOCS PTHREADS

• if you'r using WAMP like me, then you should add 'pthreadVC2.dll' into \wamp\bin\apache\ApacheX.X.X\bin and also edit the 'php.ini' file (same path) and add the same line as before

  extension=php_pthreads.dll

GOOD LUCK!