caching the result of your expensive function calls since 2016

In computing, memoization is an optimization technique used primarily to speed up computer programs by storing the results of expensive function calls and returning the cached result when the same inputs occur again.

The memoize extention leverages APCu and Zend API to implement memoization for functions and methods in PHP.

We don't yet have attributes in PHP 7, we hopefully will get them one day soon ... for now functions that should be memoized should be annotated with @memoize:

/**
* @memoize
**/
function thing() {
	/* ... */
}

Note that the annotation is case sensitive, and must not contain spaces; Case insensitivity would be a wasteful use of resources.

• When thing is invoked for the first time, the result is cached by memoize.
• Subsequent invocation of thing will result in the cached value being returned by memoize.

memoize requires APCu for it's C API, and requires that it is loaded, but APCu does not have to be enabled; memoize uses a separately configured cache.

The following INI settings configure the cache memoize:

• memoize.enabled default(1)
• memoize.segs default(1)
• memoize.size default(32M)
• memoize.entries default(4093)
• memoize.ttl default(0)
• memoize.smart default(1)

memoize.ttl sets the global TTL for the cache, and the GC list (equivalent to apc.gc_ttl and apc.ttl), it is also possible to set a ttl (in seconds) on an individual entry:

/**
* @memoize(3600)
**/
function thing() {
	/* ... */
}

Note that the annotation is case sensitive, and must not contain spaces; Case insensitivity would be a wasteful use of resources.