Question

I love getting myself into these ridiculous situations where I over-evaluate my coding practices, so here goes!

This question probably transcends PHP (as well as sanity). When evaluating a Boolean variable, which of these is best practice? (assume that there’s too much //do stuff for a ternary)

if ($bool) {
    // do true stuff
} else {
    // do false stuff
}

or

switch ($bool) {
    case true:
        // do true stuff
        break;
    default:
        // do false stuff
        break;
}

I’m interested more in performance and/or idiosyncratic considerations than blanket statements like “If/Else looks better,” “Always use Switch,” or “Do what you feel is right.”

That is, unless there really isn’t a difference.

Answer 1

Use the if-else version. It’s very clear and easy to understand.

You shouldn’t really use switch unless you have multiple (> 2) values to switch on. You gain nothing using switch in this case (other than making your code less comprehensible).

If there was any difference in performance, the if-else version would be faster, although if was there any difference it would really be negligible.

This would be a micro-optimization if anything. Don’t do it. Before you introduce any “optimizations” to your code, profile it and identify your bottlenecks.