Question

I have a function to run a query from database. Then, it will be called by 2 other functions.

function query(){
 $query= // get data from database;
return $query;
}

function show_something(){
$data = query();
//do something
}

function show_else(){
$data = query();
//do something else
}

The function query() is called twice. I guess it would do the query job every time the function is called unless the result is cached. Would anybody correct me if I am wrong?

Answer 1

You could simply do something like this:

• Set an indicator to mark if the query is first or repeated.
• Before querying, check indicator.

Code:

$fresh = true; // fresh results wanted
function query(){
global $fresh;
if($fresh){
     $query= // get data from database;
     $bar = $query; // cache the $query value for next uses..
     $$fresh = false; // set the indicator that query is cached.
}else{ // this is repeated query
    $query = $bar; //we had set the $bar last time
}
return $query;
}

function show_something(){
//first time query, $query will be fetched from database,
// also $fresh will be set to false
$data = query();
//do something
}

function show_else(){
//repeated query, cached value will be returned.
$data = query();
//do something else
}

$foo = true; // if you want fresh results, set $fresh to true before query
function show_fresh(){
//results will be fresh, because we have set $fresh to true again.
$data = query();
//do something else
}