Benchmarking Applications with PHP - Simplifying the use of the microtime() function (Page 3 of 5 )
In the previous section, I mentioned that PHP 5 offered a slightly modified version of the native “microtime()” function, since there’s no need to create a custom function to obtain a float number from it. But you have to make sure to call this function with the “get_as_float” parameter. Then it will neatly return the corresponding timestamp as a float value.
In order to illustrate the usage of the “microtime()” function with PHP 5, I created a basic example that shows how to use this function for benchmarking purposes. Have a look a the following code sample:
// example using 'microtime()' function with PHP 5
$startTime=microtime(true);
// do nothing for a while
usleep(100);
$endTime=microtime(true);
$totalTime=$endTime-$startTime;
echo 'Time spent in doing nothing was '.$totalTime.' seconds';
In this case, the above script simply calls the “microtime()” function with the “get_as_float” parameter set to true. Lastly, it displays the elapsed time as a float number. Of course, this condition is clearly demonstrated by the below output:
Time spent in doing nothing was 0.00532197952271 seconds
In addition to the example that you learned before, it’s possible to define a simple wrapper for the “microtime()” function in PHP 5 and create the following script:
// define 'getMicrotime()'function - PHP 5
function getMicrotime(){
return microtime(true);
}
$startTime=getMicrotime();
// do nothing for a while
usleep(100);
$endTime=getMicrotime();
$totalTime=$endTime-$startTime;
echo 'Time spent in doing nothing was '.$totalTime.' seconds';
/*
displays the following:
Time spent in doing nothing was 0.00789403915405 seconds
*/
As you can see, creating simple and effective timing scripts is something that can easily be done with PHP 4 or PHP 5, and they can be used as decent benchmarking approaches too.
So far, I demonstrated the capacity offered by PHP 4 and PHP 5 respectively for developing simple and efficient timing functions. However, it’s possible (and even desirable) to go one step further and develop an object-oriented timing approach that can be used for benchmarking purposes as well.
In this case, I’m simply talking about creating a timer class that can be utilized, obviously, to time several scripts and applications together. Therefore, I suggest you read the following section, where I’ll explain how to build these specific classes.
Next: Using an object-oriented approach for benchmarking scripts >>
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