CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phparrays
Itay Moav -Malimovka
Itay Moav -Malimovka

Reputation: 53597

Fastest way to check for value existence

I have a list of values I have to check my input against it for existence.

What is the fastest way?

This is really out of curiosity on how the internals work, not any stuff about premature optimization etc...

1.

$x=array('v'=>'','c'=>'','w'=>);

..

..

array_key_exists($input,$x);

2.

$x=array('v','c','w');

..

..

in_array($input,$x);

Upvotes: 1

Views: 159

Answers (2)

salathe
salathe

Reputation: 51950

How about isset($x[$input]) which, if suitable for your needs, would generally beat both of those presented.

Of the two methods in the question, array_key_exists has less work to do than in_array so if you had to choose between only those two then array_key_exists would be it.

Aside: Do you have any specific questions about "the internals"?

Upvotes: 2

Jason
Jason

Reputation: 2049

in my experience, array_key_exists is faster 99% of the time, especially as the array size grows.

that being said, isset is even faster, as it does a hash lookup vs an array value search, though isset will return false on blank values, as shown in your example array.

Upvotes: 0

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