Following on from "Tips for faster PHP Scripts" and "More Tips for Faster PHP Scripts", I bring you Even More Tips for faster PHP Scripts.

Because I've already talked about the main, general, optimization tips, these ones will tend to be more specific and may not apply to everyone - nonetheless, it's worth a read in case you ever do come across these situations.

Here are tips 11-15:

11. is_numeric() vs. ctype_digit()
To see whether is_numeric() or ctype_digit() is the fastest method, I called each function 10,000,000 times. Here are the resuts:

is_numeric(): 9.943268 seconds
ctype_digit(): 11.801991 seconds
is_numeric() is 15.75% faster than ctype_digit()

It's worth using is_numeric() over ctype_digit() where it's appropriate to do so. Although a difference of 0.0000001858723 may seem small, it does all add up.
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