Historical Results
Based on (1) saved test runs, The test labeled "!defined()" was (on average) the faster by 0.029 seconds, (2.614% faster)
The !defined() test took 1.0785 seconds.
The @define() test took 1.1075 seconds.
Nitty-Gritty
Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 262,801 loops for a total of 5,256,020 runs.
- Line execution difference (0.000006) milliseconds.
- Avg difference (0.000) milliseconds per 262,801 loops.
- Total difference 28.95 milliseconds for 5,256,020 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, "@define()", was:
@define('CONSTANT', $GLOBALS['dummy']);
The second test, "!defined()", was:
if (!defined('CONSTANT'))
define('CONSTANT', $GLOBALS['dummy']);