Test: (string) vs. concat

Concatenating to a string always results in a string, but isn't a cast faster?

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Result: Discarded

The test labeled "(string)" was the faster by 0.0477 seconds, (3.325% faster)

(string) 100%

$string . '' 96.675%

The (string) test took 1.3885 seconds.
The $string . '' test took 1.4362 seconds.

Nitty-Gritty

Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 285,959 loops for a total of 5,719,180 runs.

Line execution difference (0.000008) milliseconds.
Avg difference (2.387) milliseconds per 285,959 loops.
Total difference 47.75 milliseconds for 5,719,180 loops

The iteration variablity for Code 1 was (12.3028) milliseconds and Code 2 was (15.3922) milliseconds. The lower and the closer together there values are the more accurate the results are.

Code

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

for ($j = 0; $j < 1000; $j++)
	$GLOBALS['dummy'] = (string) $j;

The second test, "$string . ''", was:

for ($j = 0; $j < 1000; $j++)
	$GLOBALS['dummy'] = $j . '';

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