Is it quicker to not load/include many files in php?

Question

I have about a 2000 line functions file, and I have realized I can split it up into a bout 4 files, and only include the one's required. At the moment it is very neat, and ideally I would like to leave it that way, however if speed increases can be gained I would like to only include the different sections on particular conditions.

My question is basically, would it be quicker to have an if statement and only load the php functions needed. Speed is a factor, as this library is called in an ajax polling situation.

stackoverflow.com/questions/2298196/… Does not answer all the question, but still gives an idea. — user111086
– user111086, Commented Jul 29, 2011 at 0:38

Itay Moav -Malimovka · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-30 00:36:57Z

6

best approach would be to divide all your code into meaningful folders/files/classes/functions. This serves the purpose of maintainable and readable code.
And then use some kind of cache like APC whih removes the problem of many includes/IOs almost completely.

edited Jul 30, 2011 at 0:36

answered Jul 29, 2011 at 0:40

Itay Moav -Malimovka

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7 Comments

hakre Over a year ago

Split not for performance but to increase the quality of the code. +1

Josh Mc Over a year ago

For the most part my includes, invoke function definitions more then variable definitions. My understanding was APC cached variables, not so much functions, is this correct?

Itay Moav -Malimovka Over a year ago

@jezternz he actually does both, and it is a separate thing. caching variables you have to invoke by calling a function from within PHP, while caching your code happens automatically once you activate APC. You can regard this as two separate systems (which happens to share some code).

Josh Mc Over a year ago

cheers Itay!, I may have to look into a custom server, as I don't know how much control my current web server gives me and I am not sure if I will be able to install APC, but while my project is in development I probably don't need to worry about it.

Itay Moav -Malimovka Over a year ago

@jezternz how big is your project going to be (code base, number of users) you might be worried about what we call "premature optimization" (which is eval's brother).

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