Array_Push() VS. $Array[] = .... Which Is Fastest

array_push() vs. $array[] = .... Which is fastest?

You can run it and see that array_push is slower in some cases:

http://snipplr.com/view/759/speed-test-arraypush-vs-array/

Run your code. Enjoy.

Which is faster in PHP, $array[] = $value or array_push($array, $value)?

I personally feel like $array[] is cleaner to look at, and honestly splitting hairs over milliseconds is pretty irrelevant unless you plan on appending hundreds of thousands of strings to your array.

I ran this code:

$t = microtime(true);
$array = array();
for($i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++) {
    $array[] = $i;
}
print microtime(true) - $t;
print '<br>';
$t = microtime(true);
$array = array();
for($i = 0; $i < 10000; $i++) {
    array_push($array, $i);
}
print microtime(true) - $t;

The first method using $array[] is almost 50% faster than the second one.

Some benchmark results:

Run 1
0.0054171085357666 // array_push
0.0028800964355469 // array[]

Run 2
0.0054559707641602 // array_push
0.002892017364502 // array[]

Run 3
0.0055501461029053 // array_push
0.0028610229492188 // array[]

This shouldn't be surprising, as the PHP manual notes this:

If you use array_push() to add one element to the array it's better to use $array[] = because in that way there is no overhead of calling a function.

The way it is phrased I wouldn't be surprised if array_push is more efficient when adding multiple values. Out of curiosity, I did some further testing, and even for a large amount of additions, individual $array[] calls are faster than one big array_push. Interesting.

Which Is Faster $variable[] or array_push($variable, $newValue)?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-push.php#53289

Empy bracket doesn't check if a
variable is an array first as
array_push does. If array_push finds
that a variable isn't an array it
prints a Warning message if E_ALL
error reporting is on.

So array_push is safer than [], until
further this is changed by the PHP
developers.

$variable[] seems to be a lot faster:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-push.php#83388

However if you're adding multiple values per iteration array_push() is faster:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-push.php#84959

But please remember that pre-optimization is the root of all evil. Use whatever you feel more comfortable with, and when you have a performance issue, use a profiler and do some benchmarking.

Difference between array_push() and $array[] =

When you call a function in PHP (such as array_push()), there are overheads to the call, as PHP has to look up the function reference, find its position in memory and execute whatever code it defines.

Using $arr[] = 'some value'; does not require a function call, and implements the addition straight into the data structure. Thus, when adding a lot of data it is a lot quicker and resource-efficient to use $arr[].

Should array_push() be used for building an array through an iterative approach in PHP?

It's not bad per se, but function calls in PHP are relatively slow, so if you avoid array_push throughout your code, you may notice the effect. Personally I always use the [] notation, mainly because I think it's cleaner, but it's also faster.

$myArray[] = $new_data;

Even the documentation of array_push mentions this alternative as a faster one:

Note: If you use array_push() to add one element to the array it's better to use $array[] =
because in that way there is no overhead of calling a function.

But there's also the advantage of array_push, you can use it to push multiple elements to an array:

array_push($myArray, 'value1', 'value2', 'value3');

So it has its uses, but for adding single elements at a time, like you do, the shorter notation of $myArray[] = ... is faster.

Add to an array in PHP

I believe $array[] is more efficient.

How to push both value and key into PHP array

Nope, there is no array_push() equivalent for associative arrays because there is no way determine the next key.

You'll have to use

$arrayname[indexname] = $value;

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