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To: Dusk <dusk@woofle.net>, Rowan Tommins <rowan.collins@gmail.com>
CC: "internals@lists.php.net" <internals@lists.php.net>
Thread-Topic: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] var_representation() : readable alternative to
 var_export()
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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2021 14:32:32 +0000
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] var_representation() : readable alternative to
 var_export()
From: tysonandre775@hotmail.com (tyson andre)

Hi Dusk,=0A=
=0A=
> There's an interesting edge case where this does become useful. If an eva=
luable representation of a data structure is written to a file (wrapped wit=
h `<?php return $x;`) and subsequently loaded using `require()`, the file c=
an be stored in opcache. This is dramatically faster than unserialize() or =
json_decode(), especially for large structures.=0A=
> =0A=
> What'd be particularly useful for this use case would be a function which=
 behaved similarly to `var_export()`, but which didn't pretty-print its out=
put, so as to yield a smaller file.=0A=
=0A=
The larger benefit is readability and that you could reindent the output or=
 change the line endings in the output (automatically or manually through y=
our IDE) without worrying about accidentally changing the representation.=
=0A=
=0A=
```=0A=
// or other classes=0A=
    const SER =3D array (=0A=
  0 =3D> 'O:8:"stdClass":1:{s:7:"headers";s:20:"Content-Length: 10=0A=
";}',=0A=
);=0A=
```=0A=
=0A=
The size on disk would be smaller and I expect the encoding and saving a fi=
le to disk could be a tiny bit faster,=0A=
but the size in opcache would be unchanged because the resulting array is t=
he same.=0A=
For the question of size, you'd still benefit in cases where representation=
 size (e.g. megabytes of large/nested configuration or generated data) is a=
 concern=0A=
and may or may not get a small speedup when loading the file for the first =
time after clearing opcache (e.g. server restart).=0A=
(haven't benchmarked it)=0A=
=0A=
Cheers,=0A=
- Tyson=