Improving Performance with Caching
Caching is a technique used to store frequently accessed data in memory or on disk to reduce database load and improve response times.
Types of Caching
- Page caching: Stores entire HTML pages for faster delivery.
- Data caching: Stores frequently accessed data in memory.
- Output caching: Caches dynamic content generation.
- Database query caching: Stores query results.
Caching in PHP
PHP offers built-in functions like apc_store() and apc_fetch() for opcode and data caching. Additionally, you can use external caching systems like Redis or Memcached.
# Example using xdebug
xdebug_start_profile();
// Your PHP code
xdebug_stop_profile();Best Practices
- Use appropriate cache expiration times.
- Clear cache when data changes.
- Monitor cache hit rate to measure effectiveness.
- Consider using a caching framework or library.
Effective caching can dramatically improve your application’s performance, especially under high load conditions.