Clancy schreef: > I have a function to process a data file. This process opens the file, and > then calls > another function to process each entry. This function in turn calls another > function to > process each line of the entry. A set of fairly complex arrays specifies how > all the > possible types of entries and lines should be processed, and each function > passes sections > of these arrays to the next function. > > Is it better to pass the parameters by value, in which case they have to be > copied into > yet more memory when the function is called, or to pass by reference, which I > suspect may > involve additional overhead every time they are accessed? > > And is it better to combine several specifications arrays into one more > complex array, and > pass a single parameter, or to pass them individually as half a dozen > different > parameters? > > I suspect that I am probably asking a "how long is a piece of string?" type > of question, > but are there any general rules which are applicable to this type of > situation?
by reference is pointless (and less performant IIRC) unless the input will be changed, php does copy-on-write magic under the hood. one complex param or many simpler ones? I doubt either makes any difference, comes down to personal preference. ask yourself: "will I still grok all this configuration magic/params 12 months from now?" I might suggest you look into a refactoring the code to use an object, and have it store the parsing config/spec centrally as a property which each of the functions (methods) you mentioned can then read. in dutch they have a silly saying: "'How Long' is a chinaman." > -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
