Historical Results
Based on (5) saved test runs, The test labeled "time()" was (on average) the faster by 0.0069 seconds, (1.209% faster)
The time() test took 0.5661 seconds.
The strtotime('now') test took 0.5731 seconds.
Nitty-Gritty
Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 160,130 loops for a total of 3,202,604 runs.
- Line execution difference (0.000002) milliseconds.
- Avg difference (0.000) milliseconds per 160,130 loops.
- Total difference 6.93 milliseconds for 3,202,604 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');