Tag: PHP

Does the most popular imply the best?

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Today, I had a discussion with my co-worker on the best languages for web applications. While I argued that Perl, and Ruby performs better than PHP, my co-worker had an opposite opinion. He believed that PHP is the best language overall because it is widely used. It brings me to think of a question, does the most popular imply the best?

Let’s answer this question by examples:

Category Most Popular The Best Why The Best?
OS (Desktop) Windows OS X User friendly, secure, stability, and performance.
OS (Server) Linux, Windows Server FreeBSD Fast, stable, secure, simple design, and centralize management.
Browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox Safari Fast, secure, stable
Programming languages (Desktop/GUI) C#, Java C, C++ Fast, secure
Programming languages (Web/Server) PHP, ASP Ruby, Python, Perl Fast, fewer lines of code.
Database MySQL, Oracle Berkeley DB, Tokyo Cabinet Fast I/O, simple design, smaller size of the database file.
Software company to work for Microsoft Start-up Rewards, opportunity to grow

I think there are several reasons why the most popular things are not the best.

1. Most popular thing is always backed by the best marketing strategies. Marketing strategies is simply a way to let people know about the product and convince them to use it. It has nothing to do with the quality of the product at all.

Example: The ads of Internet Explorer 8 look very attractive. Is it the most secure browser ever?

2. Most people are followers. They are not good in selecting good products from bad products(i.e., filtering the noise). They believe that the choice form most people (most popular) should be the best one. This is similar to election. The choice of most people is more likely to be better.

Example: Is MySQL really the best database?

3. Different people have different preferences. So a popular product must have the general taste. For example, an extremely hot and spicy food may be better to the body, but it is not as popular as a mild one, because the number of people that can take extremely hot and spicy food is smaller.

Example: Linux is very easy to configure comparing to FreeBSD (GUI vs command line) from the end-user perspective, but it is less powerful and stable overall.

Conclusions:

Think twice before your move.

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Example PHP code to convert a number to an Excel column letter

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I was looking for a good way to convert a number to the Excel column letter, for example:

1 -> A
26 -> Z
27 -> AA
28 -> AB
800 -> ADT

etc.

After searching on Google, I could not find any algorithm I want. (The closest one can handle up to two letters, i.e., ZZ. It will crash if the number is too large.). So I ended up creating my own.

Basically, you can think of this problem as a 26 based number conversion. Here is the php version. It should be pretty simple to convert it to a different language. Let me know if you have any problem.

function columnLetter($c){

    $c = intval($c);
    if ($c < = 0) return '';

    $letter = '';
             
    while($c != 0){
       $p = ($c - 1) % 26;
       $c = intval(($c - $p) / 26);
       $letter = chr(65 + $p) . $letter;
    }
    
    return $letter;
        
}



Usage:
columnLetter(1303618093);    //DERRICK

Note that if you prefer lower cases rather than upper cases, you can simply replace 65 by 96 in the code.

Enjoy~!

–Derrick

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Tokyo Cabinet is 31 times faster than MySQL!!!

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Today I was comparing the performance of Tokyo Cabinet, MySQL and Memcached using PHP. The result of Tokyo Cabinet is really impressive!

(Note that these results are generated from my computer. If you perform your own benchmarks, then you might find different results due to different system configurations. In fact, I encourage you to perform your own benchmarks. )

1. Quick Result

Total time used to write 10000 records and retrieve them back by each candidate  (The lower the better):
Tokyo Cabinet: 18.87s
Memcached: 11.309s
MySQL: 562.21s

A completed result will be given below.

2. Testing environment

Hardware

  • Intel Pentium II 450MHz
  • 160 MB RAM

Software

  • FreeBSD 7.2
  • Apache 2.2.11
  • PHP 5.2.9
  • Tokyo Cabinet 1.4.20
  • Tokyo Tyrant 1.1.26
  • MySQL 5.1.34
  • Memcached 1.2.6

3. Test scenario

For each candidate, I measure its performance using the following strategies through PHP:

1.) The time used to create all of the necessary objects.

2.) The time used to connect to the database.

3.) The time used to store 10000 randomly generated data.

4.) The time used to read 10000 randomly generated data.

5.) The time used to close the connection.

4. Test results

Tokyo Cabinet

time index ex time %
Start 1243136772.72818600 – 0.00%
create 1243136772.72838700 0.000201 0.00%
connect 1243136772.73224200 0.003855 0.02%
vanish 1243136772.73526800 0.003026 0.02%
put 1243136781.53287200 8.797604 46.60%
get 1243136791.60574800 10.072876 53.35%
close 1243136791.60755900 0.001811 0.01%
Stop 1243136791.60782300 0.000264 0.00%
total – 18.879637 100.00%


Memcached

time index ex time %
Start 1243131185.86078100 – 0.00%
create 1243131185.86092500 0.000144 0.00%
connect 1243131185.86688300 0.005958 0.05%
put 1243131191.49702900 5.630146 49.78%
get 1243131197.16868100 5.671652 50.15%
close 1243131197.16982400 0.001143 0.01%
Stop 1243131197.17003400 0.000210 0.00%
total – 11.309253 100.00%

MySQL

time index ex time %
Start 1243136138.19049000 – 0.00%
create 1243136138.19064700 0.000157 0.00%
connect 1243136138.22529900 0.034652 0.01%
put 1243136150.70760600 12.482307 2.22%
get 1243136700.40063700 549.693031 97.77%
close 1243136700.40078900 0.000152 0.00%
Stop 1243136700.40104500 0.000256 0.00%
total – 562.210555 100.00%

The overhead time (create objects, making connections, closing connections etc) of all candidates are about the same. The only difference is storing the record and retrieving the record. Both Tokyo Cabinet and MySQL took about 10 seconds to store 10000 records in the database. However, Tokyo Cabinet took about 10 seconds to retrieve the records while MySQL took about 550 seconds! That’s about 31 times longer!

benchmark-tokyocabinet-memcached-mysql

5. Materials

Here is the material I used to make this benchmark test.
Click here to download the package.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any question or comment.

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Installing Apache, PHP, MySQL and MemCached on OS X

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This is my note on how to to install Apache, PHP and MySQL on a an OS X box. Although some of these applications are come with the operating systems, it is always good to know how to upgrade them to the latest version.

1. Apple Developer Tools and Mac Port

Before installing Mac Port, you will need the Apple Developer Tools. You can download it from the Apple Developer’s Network.

After installing Apple Developer’s Tools, you can install Mac Port. You can get it from the here.

Update Mac Port

sudo port selfupdate

Add the Mac Port path in the profile: ”’~/.bash_profile”’:

export PATH=/opt/local/bin:$PATH

MySQL:Mac Port
Install MySQL from Mac Port:

sudo port install mysql5

MySQL:Package
Go to the [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#macosx-dmg MySQL’s website] to download the package.

Setup the a master password for root user:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password'

Add the MySQL path in the profile: ”’~/.bash_profile”’:

export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH

Apache:Mac Port

Install Apache from Mac Port:

sudo port install apache2

Open the configuration file: ”’/opt/local/etc/rc.conf”’ and add the following at the end of the file:

APACHE2=-YES-

PHP:Mac Port

Install PHP from Mac Port:

sudo port install php5 +apache2 +mysql5 +pear

When that is done, register PHP 5 with Apache 2:

cd /opt/local/apache2/modules
sudo /opt/local/apache2/bin/apxs -a -e -n "php5" libphp5.so

And create a php.ini file (which you can edit to configure PHP 5):

sudo cp /opt/local/etc/php.ini-dist /opt/local/etc/php.ini

httpd.conf

Edit the Apache configuration file ”’/opt/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf”’ and add the following lines to the end of the file:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Replace this line:

DirectoryIndex index.html

by the following:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

php.ini

If the MySQL is installed from package rather than from Mac Port, we need to modify the mysql.default_socket value.

Open ”’/opt/local/etc/php.ini”’:

mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

MemCached

Install MemCached from Mac Port:

 sudo port install memcached
 sudo port install php5-memcache

We need to enable MemCached in PHP5.

First, we need to add the following in ”’/opt/local/etc/php.ini:”’:

extension_dir=/opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613
extension = memcache.so

Run the following command to start MemCached:

sudo /opt/local/bin/memcached -d -u nobody

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Installing Apache, PHP, MySQL and MemCached on FreeBSD

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This is my note on how to to install Apache, PHP, MySQL and MemCached on a FreeBSD 7 Box.

1. MySQL

Go to the mysql52-server port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/databases/mysql51-server

Build the port by typing:

make BUILD_OPTIMIZED=yes BUILD_STATIC=yes

Using these two options will speed up the execution time.

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Open the configuration file: ”’/etc/rc.conf”’ and add the following at the end of the file:

mysql_enable="YES"

Copy the default configuration file:

cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Start mysql manually to avoid having to reboot now by typing:

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server start

Setup the a master password for root user:

/usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password'

2. Apache

Go to the apache22 port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/www/apache22

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Open the configuration file: ”’/etc/rc.conf”’ and add the following at the end of the file:

apache22_enable="YES"

Add the following in: ”’/boot/loader.conf”’

accf_http_load=YES

3. PHP

3.1 PHP5

Go to the php5 port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/lang/php5

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Make sure the APACHE (Build Apache module) option is checked.

3.2 PHP5 Extentions

Note: If you need to install PDF-Lite, please do the following:

fetch ftp://ftp.swin.edu.au/gentoo/distfiles/PDFlib-Lite-7.0.2.tar.gz
sudo mv PDFlib-Lite-7.0.2.tar.gz /usr/ports/distfiles/

Go to the php5 extensions port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions

Make sure sockets is selected.

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Install the php.ini file:

cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-dist /usr/local/etc/php.ini

3.3 Enable PHP in Apache

3.3.1 httpd.conf

Edit the Apache configuration file ”’/usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf”’ and add the following lines to the end of the file:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Replace this line:

DirectoryIndex index.html

by the following:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
3.3.2 httpd-languages.conf

Edit the Languageconfiguration file ”’/usr/local/etc/apache22/extra/httpd-languages.conf”’ and add the following lines to the end of the file:

AddDefaultCharset On

Startup the Apache:

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 start

4. MEMCached

Go to the pecl-memcache port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/databases/pecl-memcache

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Go to the memcached port directory by typing the command:

cd /usr/ports/databases/memcached

Install the port by typing:

make install clean

Open the configuration file: ”’/etc/rc.conf”’ and add the following at the end of the file:

memcached_enable="YES"

To start using MemCached without rebooting, type:

/usr/local/bin/memcached -d -u nobody

–Derrick

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