PHP: Array as var_export/include vs. (un)serialize vs. json_(en|de)code

I have to transfer a big array from one server to another using a file. It's a multidimensional, but quite simple array. Now I'm searching for the most efficient way, to get this file into my application on the second server. So this question is about the file->array part, not the array->file part on the first server.

Of course I did some benchmarks on the 3 alternatives that seemed most promising. My complete benchmark data:

time:

• include: 0.338...
• unserialize: 0.180...
• json_decode: 0.134...

peak memory usage:

• include: 384374.64
• unserialize: 201377.28
• json_decode: 219528.08

file size:

• include: 3135 kB
• unserialize: 3142 kB
• json_decode: 1838 kB

I think json_decode is the way to go, because开发者_开发百科 peak memory usage is my smallest concern and even there json is quite good. But the speed and file size of json just rocks. I woul have never thought it to be that fast.

Any objections or other suggestions?

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Kudos to Jan for 1) actually trying out different methods 2) sharing the results

Some time ago, I was working on an AI system whwew the knowledgebase was stored in a large array. I found it was an order of magnitude faster to rebuild the entire array from database records (local mysql, approx 30,000 rows) rather than unserialize the array from a file.

(This also meant that I was later able to amend the code to only selectively load the relevant parts of the knowledge tree which speeded it up even more).

HTH

C.