Does anyone know...

Imagining that the file being called is local and it is plain text, is there any difference (particularly with regards to speed) between using

PHP Code:

    ob_start();
    include($file);
    $contents = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean(); 


and

PHP Code:

    $contents = file_get_contents($file)? 


if it's just plain text then file_get_contents will be faster.

Thanks.

Are you sure or is that a guess?

the get_contents would be marginally quicker.

When a file is included the parser has to do a context switch from "PHP mode" to "HTML Mode" until it either reads a <? delimiter or hits EOF, it then has to switch back to "PHP mode"

Excellent. Thanks for the explanation.

Originally Posted by chrishirst

the get_contents would be marginally quicker.

When a file is included the parser has to do a context switch from "PHP mode" to "HTML Mode" until it either reads a <? delimiter or hits EOF, it then has to switch back to "PHP mode"

Nice explaination. Anyway, I've been using require_once() to include bits of php code that's reused on my sites. I take it tht the get_contents() doesn't parse PHP so it would essentially be useless for my application ?

It cannot be used to include PHP code.

The file_get_contents() function reads a file, and throws the content into a pre-specified string. As of this, yes, it is indeed useless for your case.

- Spyros.

is not matter of velocity. file_get_contents() returns the content of the file. include() not take the content in a variable, simply include the content and, if there is php code, excecutes. file_get_contents() not excecute nothing.