Arrays, and by extension iteration, are fundamental parts to any application. And like the complexity of our applications, how we use them should evolve as we gain access to new tools.

New tools, like generators, for instance. First came arrays. Then we gained the ability to define our own array-like things (called iterators). But since PHP 5.5, we can rapidly create iterator-like structures called generators.

These appear as functions, but we can use them as iterators. They give us a simple syntax for what are essentially interruptible, repeatable functions. They’re wonderful!

And we’re going to look at a few areas in which we can use them. We’re also going to discover a few problems to be aware of when using them. Finally, we’ll study a brilliant library, created by the talented Nikita Popov.

You can find the example code at https://github.com/sitepoint-editors/generators-and-iter.

The Problems

Imagine you have lots of relational data, and you want to do some eager loading. Perhaps the data is comma-separated, and you need to load each data type, and knit them together.

Continue reading %Memory Performance Boosts with Generators and Nikic/Iter%

Source: SitePoint