Is it better to use ob_get_contents() or $text .= 'test';

Question

I have seen a lot of ob_get_clean() the last while. Typically I have done $test .= 'test'

I'm wondering if one is faster and/or better than the other.

Here is the code using ob_get_clean():

ob_start();

foreach($items as $item) {
    echo '<div>' . $item . '</div>';
}

$test = ob_get_clean();

Here is the code using $test .= 'test':

$test = '';

foreach($items as $item) {
    $test .= '<div>' . $item . '</div>';
}

Which is better?

Answer 1

Output buffers have all the pitfalls of global variables. You have to be aware of all execution paths from the ob_start() to the ob_get_clean(). Are you sure it will get there, and that any buffers opened in between will have been closed? Keep in mind that code can throw exceptions. That can be a really fun bug for the next guy to track down.

On the other hand--and I hate to even mention it--at one time output buffering was somewhat faster at concatenating large strings, for reasons internal to PHP. I'm not sure if that is still true.