apc_define_constants
(PECL apc >= 3.0.0)
apc_define_constants — Defines a set of constants for retrieval and mass-definition
Description
$key
, array $constants
[, bool $case_sensitive = true
] )define() is notoriously slow. Since the main benefit of APC is to increase the performance of scripts/applications, this mechanism is provided to streamline the process of mass constant definition. However, this function does not perform as well as anticipated.
For a better-performing solution, try the » hidef extension from PECL.
Note: To remove a set of stored constants (without clearing the entire cache), an empty array may be passed as the
constantsparameter, effectively clearing the stored value(s).
Parameters
-
key -
The
keyserves as the name of the constant set being stored. Thiskeyis used to retrieve the stored constants in apc_load_constants(). -
constants -
An associative array of constant_name => value pairs. The constant_name must follow the normal constant naming rules. value must evaluate to a scalar value.
-
case_sensitive -
The default behaviour for constants is to be declared case-sensitive; i.e. CONSTANT and Constant represent different values. If this parameter evaluates to
FALSEthe constants will be declared as case-insensitive symbols.
Return Values
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Examples
Example #1 apc_define_constants() example
<?php
$constants = array(
'ONE' => 1,
'TWO' => 2,
'THREE' => 3,
);
apc_define_constants('numbers', $constants);
echo ONE, TWO, THREE;
?>
The above example will output:
123
See Also
- apc_load_constants() - Loads a set of constants from the cache
- define() - Defines a named constant
- constant() - Returns the value of a constant
- Or the PHP constants reference
Коментарии
An observation that I've made is that the nature of apc_define_constants() binding the list of constants to a key and then requiring that key to load the constants is limiting. Furthermore, there's no way to append additional constants to a given key.
A solution that I've been adopting is to build a list of constants to be defined, and then do one of two things:
1) if APC is enabled, then use apc_define_constants();
2) ...else loop through the list and define each constant normally.
The problem I've run into is when this process happens at different places in a large application, it can introduce overhead that otherwise wouldn't be there if it was possible to append to an existing list of defined constants in APC.
It doesn't introduce much overhead if you make use of conditional function definitions:
<?php
if (function_exists('apc_load_constants')) {
function define_array($key, $arr, $case_sensitive = true)
{
if (!apc_load_constants($key, $case_sensitive)) {
apc_define_constants($key, $arr, $case_sensitive);
}
}
} else {
function define_array($key, $arr, $case_sensitive = true)
{
foreach ($arr as $name => $value)
define($name, $value, $case_sensitive);
}
}
//in your code you just write something like this:
define_array('NUMBERS', Array('ONE' => 1, 'TWO' => 2, 'THREE' => 3));
?>