PHP stdClass initialization vs array-to-object typecast

php_stdclass_init.php

<?php

$start = microtime(true);

for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++) {
  $a = new stdClass();
  $a->hello = 'there';
}

$end = microtime(true);

echo "new stdClass x 1,000,000: " . ($end - $start) . " ms\n";

$start = microtime(true);

for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++) {
  $a = (object)array('hello' => 'there');
}

$end = microtime(true);

echo "array => object x 1,000,000: " . ($end - $start) . " ms\n";

test results

$ php php_stdclass_init.php 
new stdClass x 1,000,000: 0.7306969165802 ms
array => object x 1,000,000: 0.45129489898682 ms