Re: Array mysteries

On Sun, March 11, 2007 2:57 pm, Edward Vermillion wrote: > Would the array lookup be faster for a lesser-used option/key in a > situation where there were quite a few options? (you wouldn't have to > go through the whole switch to get to the option at the end (?) or > would you? I have no idea how that all works internally) Almost for sure, a 'switch' is going to win over the array hash lookup in almost all cases, as the switch is built into the opcodes, and not an array hash lookup. If I understood a thread on Internals last month correctly, internally, the order of the case statements does matter, somewhat, but you *DO* have to be calling something a ZILLION times for it to matter in the real world. Stressing out over performance instead of maintainability is almost always the wrong way to start a project. You don't want to be a complete idiot, but often-times the performance bottle-neck ends up being somewhere entirely different from where you expected anyway. Write the code as straight-forward and maintainable as you can first. Then measure it for performance to see if it's acceptable. -- Some people have a "gift" link here. Know what I want? I want you to buy a CD from some starving artist. http://cdbaby.com/browse/from/lynch Yeah, I get a buck. So?