Re: Is it worth it to return a resource by reference?

Ney André de Mello Zunino wrote:
Hi.

I would like to know whether returning and passing around a resource (e.g. like those returned by mysql_query) by reference is worth it or nothing more than overkill. The reason I ask is because I don't know of what a resource is actually made and I fear it might be so simple (e.g. a mere number or pointer identifying a potentially big object) that passing it by reference could even increase the overhead. What's the truth?

The situation I have is a function which queries and returns a given range of objects (blog posts in this case) and another one which later receives the result set and works through it to output the contents. Something like the following sample code (using references):

// ----- BEGINNING OF SAMPLE CODE -----

function& getPosts(...)
{
return mysql_query(...);
}

function showPosts(&$postsResultSet)
{
while ($post = mysql_fetch_object($postsResultSet))
{
...
}
}

// driver code:
$results =& getPosts(...);
...
showPosts($results);

// ----- END OF SAMPLE CODE -----

Any comments will be appreciated.

Thank you,


Passing by reference should never increase the amount of overhead (at least not by any measurable amount), even for an integer. And for more complex objects it will decrease the overhead.

--
==================
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Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
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