Each page on my website is rendered using PHP.
Each PHP file uses around 10 includes. So for every page that is displayed, the server needs to fetch 10 files, in addition to the rest of its functions (MySQL, etc).
Should I combine them into a single include file? Will that make ANY difference to the real-world speed? It’s not a trivial task as there would be a spaghetti of variable scope to sort out.
Include files are processed on the server, so they’re not “fetched” by the browser. The performance difference of using includes vs. copy and pasting the code or consolidating files is so negligible (and I’m guessing we’re talking about in the 10 ms to 100 ms range, at the absolute most), that it isn’t at all worth it.
Feel free to
includeandrequireto your heart’s content. Clean code is substantially more important than shaving less than 100 ms off a page load. If you’re building something where timing is that critical, you shouldn’t be using PHP anyway.