Performance of foreach, array_map with lambda and array_map with static function

Question

What's the performance difference (if there is any) between these three approaches, both used to transform an array to another array?

1. Using foreach
2. Using array_map with lambda/closure function
3. Using array_map with 'static' function/method
4. 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.

Answer 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

Answer 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

Answer 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

Answer 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.

Answer 5

I tried testing @FGM's code on PHP 8 and window 10 in 10 times. And this is result: Image

I don't know if PHP could have JIT. I guess it had JIT in PHP8 because in file php.ini, I saw 1 config command in php.ini: auto_globals_jit=On.