Profile memory usage and execution time when storing in the Beans Action API Container using json_encode

beans-action-encoding-test.php

<?php
/**
 * Test if we need to encode each action before storing it into the container.
 *
 * This test will run 1,000,000 cycles using json_encode and take a snapshot of the memory usage and total execution time.
 * Then it'll run another million cycles by storing the array into the container, without encoding it.
 *
 * We'll print out the results.
 */

/**
 * Run the test using json_encode().
 *
 * @since 1.0.0
 *
 * @return int
 */
function run_with_json_encode() {
	$container    = array( 'added' => array() );
	$action       = array(
		'hook'     => 'foo',
		'callback' => 'some_callback',
		'priority' => 10,
		'args'     => 2,
	);
	$memory_usage = memory_get_usage();
	$time         = microtime( true );

	// Run the test 1million times, adding the action into our container.
	for ( $index = 0; $index < 1000000; $index ++ ) {
		$container['added'][] = json_encode( $action );
	}

	// Take a snapshot of the memory we used during the test.
	return array(
		microtime( true ) - $time,
		memory_get_usage() - $memory_usage,
	);
}

/**
 * Description.
 *
 * @since 1.0.0
 *
 * @return int
 */
function run_without_encoding() {
	$container    = array( 'added' => array() );
	$action       = array(
		'hook'     => 'foo',
		'callback' => 'some_callback',
		'priority' => 10,
		'args'     => 2,
	);
	$memory_usage = memory_get_usage();
	$time         = microtime( true );

	// Run the test 1million times, adding the action into our container.
	for ( $index = 0; $index < 1000000; $index ++ ) {
		$container['added'][] = $action;
	}

	// Take a snapshot and return.
	return array(
		microtime( true ) - $time,
		memory_get_usage() - $memory_usage,
	);
}

$encoded_results = run_with_json_encode();
$array_results   = run_without_encoding();

// Print out the results.
echo "\nFor 1,000,000 cycles, the results are:\n\n";

printf( "\tUsing json_encode:     %d bytes in %0.6f seconds.\n", number_format( $encoded_results[1] ), $encoded_results[0] );
printf( "\tWithout json_encode:    %d bytes in %0.6f seconds.\n", number_format( $array_results[1] ), $array_results[0] );

The results from the above tests:

For 1,000,000 cycles, the results are:

	Using json_encode:     232 bytes in 0.884874 seconds.
	Without json_encode:    96 bytes in 0.139804 seconds.

Using json_encode is both slower and uses more memory.