Historical Results
Based on (6) saved test runs, The test labeled "time()" was (on average) the faster by 0.0252 seconds, (2.854% faster)
The time() test took 0.8568 seconds.
The strtotime('now') test took 0.882 seconds.
Nitty-Gritty
Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 207,620 loops for a total of 4,152,403 runs.
- Line execution difference (0.000006) milliseconds.
- Avg difference (0.000) milliseconds per 207,620 loops.
- Total difference 25.17 milliseconds for 4,152,403 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, "time()", was:
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++) $GLOBALS['dummy'] = time();
The second test, "strtotime('now')", was:
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++)
$GLOBALS['dummy'] = strtotime('now');