Sharpen Your Code with Benchmarking in PHP : Page 3

The Benchmark_Iterate Class
The Benchmark_Iterate class provides two methods for benchmarking a function:

• void run(): Benchmarks a function.
• array get([ $simple_output = false]): Returns the benchmark results. In the results, the code $result[x] represents the execution time of iteration x, $result['iterations'] represents the number of iterations and $result['mean'] represents the mean execution time.

Before attempting to benchmark a complex function, here's a simple example that should clarify the benchmarking process. This example defines a function, and then calls it four times using the run method. Finally, it outputs the results:

   <?php
   require_once 'Benchmark/Iterate.php';
   
   //create an instance of the Benchmark_Iterate class 
   $benchmark = new Benchmark_Iterate;
   
   function example($string) {
      print $string . '<br>';
   }
   
   //Benchmarks the example function
   $benchmark->run(4, 'example', 'Octavia');
   
   //Returns benchmark result
   $result = $benchmark->get();
   
   echo 'The number of iterations is '.$result['iterations'].'<br />';
   echo 'The mean is: '.$result['mean'];
   ?> 

When you run this application, the output is:

   Octavia
   Octavia
   Octavia
   Octavia
   The number of iterations is 4
   The mean is: 0.000064

With that simple example in hand, Listing 2 shows a slightly more complex example that applies the Benchmark_Iterate class to the iterative Fibonacci solution, while Listing 3 applies it to the recursive Fibonacci solution. The programs return these results:

Iterative Result

   1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 
   The execution time of 1 iteration: 0.000223
   The number of iterations is: 1
   The mean is: 0.000223

The Recursive Result

   1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 
   The execution time of 1 iteration is: 0.001135
   The number of iterations is: 1
   The mean is: 0.001135

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