Performance of foreach, array_map with lambda and array_map with static function
What's the performance difference (if there is any) between these three approaches, both used to transform an array to another array?
- Using
foreach - Using
array_mapwith lambda/closure function - Using
array_mapwith 'static' function/method - Is there any other approach?
To make myself clear, let's have look at the examples, all doing the same - multiplying the array of numbers by 10:
$numbers = range(0, 1000);
Foreach
$result = array();
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
$result[] = $number * 10;
}
return $result;
Map with lambda
return array_map(function($number) {
return $number * 10;
}, $numbers);
Map with 'static' function, passed as string reference
function tenTimes($number) {
return $number * 10;
}
return array_map('tenTimes', $numbers);
Is there any other approach? I will be happy to hear actually all differences between the cases from above, and any inputs why one should be used instead of others.
Solution 1:
Its interesting to run this benchmark with xdebug disabled, as xdebug adds quite a lot of overhead, esp to function calls.
This is FGM's script run using 5.6 With xdebug
ForEach : 0.79232501983643
MapClosure: 4.1082420349121
MapNamed : 1.7884571552277
Without xdebug
ForEach : 0.69830799102783
MapClosure: 0.78584599494934
MapNamed : 0.85125398635864
Here there is only a very small difference between the foreach and closure version.
Its also interesting to add a version with a closure with a use
function useMapClosureI($numbers) {
$i = 10;
return array_map(function($number) use ($i) {
return $number * $i++;
}, $numbers);
}
For comparison I add:
function useForEachI($numbers) {
$result = array();
$i = 10;
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
$result[] = $number * $i++;
}
return $result;
}
Here we can see it makes an impact on the closure version, whereas the array hasn't noticeably changed.
19/11/2015 I have also now added results using PHP 7 and HHVM for comparison. The conclusions are similar, though everything is much faster.
PHP 5.6
ForEach : 0.57499806880951
MapClosure : 0.59327731132507
MapNamed : 0.69694859981537
MapClosureI: 0.73265469074249
ForEachI : 0.60068697929382
PHP 7
ForEach : 0.11297199726105
MapClosure : 0.16404168605804
MapNamed : 0.11067249774933
MapClosureI: 0.19481580257416
ForEachI : 0.10989861488342
HHVM
ForEach : 0.090071058273315
MapClosure : 0.10432276725769
MapNamed : 0.1091267824173
MapClosureI: 0.11197068691254
ForEachI : 0.092114186286926
Solution 2:
FWIW, I just did the benchmark since poster didn't do it. Running on PHP 5.3.10 + XDebug.
UPDATE 2015-01-22 compare with mcfedr's answer below for additional results without XDebug and a more recent PHP version.
function lap($func) {
$t0 = microtime(1);
$numbers = range(0, 1000000);
$ret = $func($numbers);
$t1 = microtime(1);
return array($t1 - $t0, $ret);
}
function useForeach($numbers) {
$result = array();
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
$result[] = $number * 10;
}
return $result;
}
function useMapClosure($numbers) {
return array_map(function($number) {
return $number * 10;
}, $numbers);
}
function _tenTimes($number) {
return $number * 10;
}
function useMapNamed($numbers) {
return array_map('_tenTimes', $numbers);
}
foreach (array('Foreach', 'MapClosure', 'MapNamed') as $callback) {
list($delay,) = lap("use$callback");
echo "$callback: $delay\n";
}
I get pretty consistent results with 1M numbers across a dozen attempts:
- Foreach: 0.7 sec
- Map on closure: 3.4 sec
- Map on function name: 1.2 sec.
Supposing the lackluster speed of the map on closure was caused by the closure possibly being evaluated each time, I also tested like this:
function useMapClosure($numbers) {
$closure = function($number) {
return $number * 10;
};
return array_map($closure, $numbers);
}
But the results are identical, confirming that the closure is only evaluated once.
2014-02-02 UPDATE: opcodes dump
Here are the opcode dumps for the three callbacks. First useForeach():
compiled vars: !0 = $numbers, !1 = $result, !2 = $number
line # * op fetch ext return operands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 0 > EXT_NOP
1 RECV 1
11 2 EXT_STMT
3 INIT_ARRAY ~0
4 ASSIGN !1, ~0
12 5 EXT_STMT
6 > FE_RESET $2 !0, ->15
7 > > FE_FETCH $3 $2, ->15
8 > OP_DATA
9 ASSIGN !2, $3
13 10 EXT_STMT
11 MUL ~6 !2, 10
12 ASSIGN_DIM !1
13 OP_DATA ~6, $7
14 14 > JMP ->7
15 > SWITCH_FREE $2
15 16 EXT_STMT
17 > RETURN !1
16 18* EXT_STMT
19* > RETURN null
Then the useMapClosure()
compiled vars: !0 = $numbers
line # * op fetch ext return operands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 0 > EXT_NOP
1 RECV 1
19 2 EXT_STMT
3 EXT_FCALL_BEGIN
4 DECLARE_LAMBDA_FUNCTION '%00%7Bclosure%7D%2Ftmp%2Flap.php0x7f7fc1424173'
21 5 SEND_VAL ~0
6 SEND_VAR !0
7 DO_FCALL 2 $1 'array_map'
8 EXT_FCALL_END
9 > RETURN $1
22 10* EXT_STMT
11* > RETURN null
and the closure it calls:
compiled vars: !0 = $number
line # * op fetch ext return operands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 0 > EXT_NOP
1 RECV 1
20 2 EXT_STMT
3 MUL ~0 !0, 10
4 > RETURN ~0
21 5* EXT_STMT
6* > RETURN null
then the useMapNamed() function:
compiled vars: !0 = $numbers
line # * op fetch ext return operands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 0 > EXT_NOP
1 RECV 1
29 2 EXT_STMT
3 EXT_FCALL_BEGIN
4 SEND_VAL '_tenTimes'
5 SEND_VAR !0
6 DO_FCALL 2 $0 'array_map'
7 EXT_FCALL_END
8 > RETURN $0
30 9* EXT_STMT
10* > RETURN null
and the named function it calls, _tenTimes():
compiled vars: !0 = $number
line # * op fetch ext return operands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24 0 > EXT_NOP
1 RECV 1
25 2 EXT_STMT
3 MUL ~0 !0, 10
4 > RETURN ~0
26 5* EXT_STMT
6* > RETURN null
Solution 3:
Here are some updated tests for the current PHP 8 (RC2) version. Also added short closures
PHP 8.0 RC2
Foreach: 0.093745978673299
MapClosure: 0.096948345502218
MapShortClosure: 0.096264243125916
MapNamed: 0.091399153073629
MapClosureI: 0.11352666219076
ForEachI: 0.097501540184021
Solution 4:
It's interesting. But I've got an opposite result with the following codes which are simplified from my current projects:
// test a simple array_map in the real world.
function test_array_map($data){
return array_map(function($row){
return array(
'productId' => $row['id'] + 1,
'productName' => $row['name'],
'desc' => $row['remark']
);
}, $data);
}
// Another with local variable $i
function test_array_map_use_local($data){
$i = 0;
return array_map(function($row) use ($i) {
$i++;
return array(
'productId' => $row['id'] + $i,
'productName' => $row['name'],
'desc' => $row['remark']
);
}, $data);
}
// test a simple foreach in the real world
function test_foreach($data){
$result = array();
foreach ($data as $row) {
$tmp = array();
$tmp['productId'] = $row['id'] + 1;
$tmp['productName'] = $row['name'];
$tmp['desc'] = $row['remark'];
$result[] = $tmp;
}
return $result;
}
// Another with local variable $i
function test_foreach_use_local($data){
$result = array();
$i = 0;
foreach ($data as $row) {
$i++;
$tmp = array();
$tmp['productId'] = $row['id'] + $i;
$tmp['productName'] = $row['name'];
$tmp['desc'] = $row['remark'];
$result[] = $tmp;
}
return $result;
}
Here is my testing data and codes:
$data = array_fill(0, 10000, array(
'id' => 1,
'name' => 'test',
'remark' => 'ok'
));
$tests = array(
'array_map' => array(),
'foreach' => array(),
'array_map_use_local' => array(),
'foreach_use_local' => array(),
);
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++){
foreach ($tests as $testName => &$records) {
$start = microtime(true);
call_user_func("test_$testName", $data);
$delta = microtime(true) - $start;
$records[] = $delta;
}
}
// output result:
foreach ($tests as $name => &$records) {
printf('%.4f : %s '.PHP_EOL,
array_sum($records) / count($records), $name);
}
The result is:
0.0098 : array_map 0.0114 : foreach 0.0114 : array_map_use_local 0.0115 : foreach_use_local
My tests were in LAMP production environment without xdebug. I'am wandering xdebug would slow down array_map's performance.