Test: (int) vs. settype

If you already have a variable, logic tells us that changing is type might be faster than creating a new value (which a cast does.) But, is this true?

Run this test again Return to test menu

Historical Results

Based on (7) saved test runs, The test labeled "(int)" was (on average) the faster by 0.0186 seconds, (1.963% faster)

(int) 100%

settype() 98.037%

The (int) test took 0.9297 seconds.
The settype() test took 0.9483 seconds.

Nitty-Gritty

Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 228,138 loops for a total of 4,562,766 runs.

Line execution difference (0.000004) milliseconds.
Avg difference (0.000) milliseconds per 228,138 loops.
Total difference 18.61 milliseconds for 4,562,766 loops

The iteration variablity for Code 1 was (0.0000) milliseconds and Code 2 was (0.0000) milliseconds. The lower and the closer together there values are the more accurate the results are.

Code

The first test, "(int)", was:

for ($j = 0; $j < 100; $j++)
{
	$i = '42 ';
	$i = (int) $i;
}

The second test, "settype()", was:

for ($j = 0; $j < 100; $j++)
{
	$i = '42 ';
	settype($i, 'int');
}

PHP Benchmarks