Question

Take this:

$data = array('one'=>'1','three'=>'3');

Now which is better?
This:

echo @$data['two'];

or this:

function val($data,$key,$default){
  if(isset($data[$key])){
    return $data[$key];
  }
  return $default;
}
echo val($data,'two','');

or this:

echo isset($data['two'])?$data['two']:'';

or something else?

avoiding the notice: Notice: Undefined index: two in document on line #num

which one is the most efficient, and which one should I use?
I am wondering that maybe the super-slow error suppressing might be faster than having a dedicated function?

p.s. Lots of answers seem to assume that I am doing this as a form of optimization, this is not true, I am asking the “efficiency” part out of curiosity and the “which should I use” part because I need to use something and I want to know what I should default to.

p.p.s. most efficient and which used will most likely be different

Answer 1

This is common sense answer

“@” symbol will suppress PHP-generated error messages. suppress, notice will occure and error handling function will be called.

isset is part of the language construct, therefore it is much faster.

Use Ternary Operators isset($dat['index']) ? $data['index'] : null, because it looks clean and does not trigger error handling