DEV Community

Theophilus Kolawole
Theophilus Kolawole

Posted on

Tips for optimizing PHP code for better performance

Image description
PHP is a popular programming language that is widely used to build dynamic and interactive web applications. However, as the complexity and scale of these applications increase, it is important to optimize the PHP code to ensure that they perform efficiently and effectively. Here are some tips for optimizing PHP code:

  1. Use a PHP accelerator: A PHP accelerator is a tool that speeds up the execution of PHP scripts by caching the compiled bytecode in memory. This reduces the time spent on parsing and compiling the PHP code, leading to faster execution. Some popular PHP accelerators include APC, XCache, and eAccelerator.

  2. Use single quotes for strings: Single quotes are faster than double quotes because PHP does not have to parse the string for variables. Use single quotes whenever possible, especially for long strings.

  3. Avoid using global variables: Global variables can be accessed from anywhere in the code, which can lead to messy and hard-to-maintain code. Try to avoid using global variables and use local variables or function arguments instead.

  4. Use the latest version of PHP: PHP is constantly being improved and optimized. Make sure to use the latest stable version of PHP to take advantage of these improvements.

  5. Use prepared statements for database queries: Prepared statements are a way to optimize database queries by allowing the database server to parse and compile the query once, and then execute it multiple times with different parameters. This can significantly improve the performance of database-intensive applications.

By following these tips, you can optimize your PHP code and improve the performance of your web applications. It is worth noting that these are just a few of the many ways to optimize PHP code, and the specific optimizations will depend on the characteristics and requirements of your application.

Learn more about PHP

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
suckup_de profile image
Lars Moelleken
  1. APC, XCache, and eAccelerator are deprecated, you can still use e.g. APCu or Redis or Memcache for caching,... APCu could share memory between php-fpm processes

  2. Quotes are not relevant for the performance... the only way to speed things up, are profiling

  3. Global variables has nothing to do with performance but you are right, avoiding them is a good practice

  4. Yes, using newer versions of php are mostly faster

  5. Non prepare statements are faster if you do the query only once, if you do many similar queries then the extra prepare connection can be worth it.

Collapse
 
icolomina profile image
Nacho Colomina Torregrosa • Edited

4.- The last php8 version comes with JIT compiler which opens new chances for php as a language beyond web applications