Historical Results
Based on (1) saved test runs, The test labeled "preg_replace()" was (on average) the faster by 0.0062 seconds, (0.554% faster)
The preg_replace() test took 1.1079 seconds.
The str_replace() test took 1.1141 seconds.
Nitty-Gritty
Each test case ran 20 random code order iterations consisting of 281,308 loops for a total of 5,626,160 runs.
- Line execution difference (0.000001) milliseconds.
- Avg difference (0.000) milliseconds per 281,308 loops.
- Total difference 6.17 milliseconds for 5,626,160 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, "preg_replace()", was:
$GLOBALS['dummy2'] = preg_replace('~([Ww]heat|[Tt]hins)~', 'Nilla', $GLOBALS['dummy']);
The second test, "str_replace()", was:
$GLOBALS['dummy2'] = str_replace(array('Wheat', 'Thins', 'wheat', 'thins'), 'Nilla', $GLOBALS['dummy']);