i have some images in a folder on a server:
/9_123456.jpg
/10_123457.jpg
/21_123458.jpg
/14_123459.jpg
...
also i have a database that holds those file names.
id file
9 9_123456.jpg
10 10_123457.jpg
21 21_123458.jpg
14 14_123459.jpg
what i am doing at this point is query the picture name and show it on a webpage.
the issue is that i have millions of pictures and sometimes it takes a while for those images to come back, in special if i have to join that table with some other ones.
What i am thinking to do is to ignore that database table and write a php function that gets me the pic like this:
look in that directory and find a pic that begins with 9, or 10 , or whatever, because i know that number. some kind of a regexp.
my question is, will this method be faster than the query? and how would i look for that file?
hope i made myself clear enough.
thnaks
There is glob to help you out: Try glob($id.'_*.jpg');
Performance depends on your system. Very generally speaking: On Windows it will be slower (due to the way the * semantics are built), on Unices YMMV. I have experienced excellent results with Linux and ReiserFS and very usable results with Linux and ext*. If many images are accessed, chances are, you have the directory in cache. Mind though, that memory pressure is an ingredient to this!