PHP/if switch

If you want to compare one variable to multiple values in PHP, you can do so 2 different ways:

if / elseif

if ($fnord == 23) {
   echo "Found a 23!";
} elseif ($fnord == 17) {
   echo "Found a 17!";
} elseif ($fnord == "Foobar") {
   echo "Fnord is a string!";
} else {
   echo "Nothing special";
}

• http://www.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.elseif.php

OR you can do the same like this

switch / case

switch ($fnord) {
case 23:
   echo "Found a 23!";
   break;
case 17:
   echo "Found a 17!";
   break;
case "Foobar":
   echo "Fnord is a string!";
   break;
default:
   echo "Nothing special";
}

• http://www.php.net/switch

read here why you need the "break"

Which is Faster ?

Now, you might wonder, which is "better" to use?

Look at this Benchmark provided by Shai-Tan comparing them.

It turns out that the difference is almost not noticable but switch is a tiny bit faster.

<@Shai-Tan> mutante: 0.00011 <@Shai-Tan> mutante: a moral victory at best