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I'm developing an API that will allow developers to post a set of parameters, which can be up to approximately 100 different ones. I'm not sure how many (or which) they will typically use, but previous experience leads me to believe that it will only be a few.

Now I'm faced with a SPEED question (since I expect many API calls per second): will it make a difference if I use switch statement versus if/elseif statements?

Because for readability purposes I would obviously prefer to do something like:

foreach ($_REQUEST as $key=>$value) {
switch ($key) {
    case 'par1':
        // do something
        break;
    case 'par2':
        // do something else
        break;
    case 'par3':
        // etc etc

My code will be a LOT more readable if I can stick to this and it will be easier to add/remove parameters without making obvious mistakes.

PS - I couldn't find a post like this on SO already, except for this one about C++

EDIT: I now found another post on SO (IF vs SWITCH) that compares a FEW statements in this context. The benchmark said there's little difference (although it's still 30%), but I'm still wondering what would happen in the case of 100 parameters.

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user1914292
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    oops - just found this post which probably says it all: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3178801/what-is-the-difference-between-switch-and-if/3178843#3178843 – user1914292 Apr 17 '15 at 15:41
  • @DamienPirsy I haven't figured out HOW to test this yet. Especially since this will be about around 100 parameters. And most likely some of them will (in the end) become the ones which are most used. – user1914292 Apr 17 '15 at 15:43
  • Additional information: A good website which I found several years ago is this one: http://www.phpbench.com/ It is showing you some benchmarks on the functions of PHP. In my lessons they told me that SWITCH should be used when you have three or more comparisons. In any case it still depends on what you are comparing. SWITCH is limited in the options. Kind regards – Michael Walter Apr 17 '15 at 15:45

1 Answers1

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The performance difference is minimal and I wouldn't worry about it and just go for the switch.

See benchmarks on the post also mentioned in the comment: What is the difference between Switch and IF?

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Rein Baarsma
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