Question

i would like to know which one is the best for performance:

1- use smarty template ( or any other better)

<?php
$Smarty = new Smarty();
// set all the default variables and other config
$Smarty->assign('var1', 'hello');
$Smarty->assign('var2', 'world');
$Smarty->display('page.html');

2- use this code:

<?php
$var1 = 'hello';
$var2 = 'world';
echo "$var1 $var2";

3- use this code:

<?php
$var1 = 'hello';
$var2 = 'world';
echo $var1 . " " . $var2;

based on these 3 examples i cant think about a new one, which one is best to use when performance

note: of course i have more variables than this example.

thanks

Answer 1

As far as I remember, concatenating PHP variables (as in your third example) is faster than using "$var1 $var2" given a mix of variables and constant strings as each token is evaluated on the fly (which is bad).

So, between 2 and 3, I believe it depends on context: If you have a long string with a mix of variables and constants, then method 3 would be faster. Otherwise, if it’s identical to your example, 2 might be faster (however, the difference is negligible and therefore should be a moot point).

Using a templating engine will always be slower than raw code.

---

Now if you don’t have a very good reason to not use a templating engine, you should by all accounts use one. Why?

• Separation of concerns: Your PHP shouldn’t care about your HTML and vice versa.
• Maintenance: Maintaining can become a nightmare when you mix HTML and PHP (or any other language for that matter) and should really be avoided at all cost (unless you’re doing something blindingly trivial).