Too many Variables vs Arrays

Question

Which one is better from performance view (CPU usage and etc)? using too many Variables or a single Associative Array or generally an Array?

This one:

$ld_linkdump_title         = get_option('ld_linkdump_title');
$ld_linkdump_widget_title  = get_option('ld_linkdump_widget_title');
$nw_option                 = get_option('ld_open_nw');
$ld_open_branding          = get_option('ld_open_branding');
$ld_stylesheet_option      = get_option('ld_stylesheet');
$ld_number_of_links        = get_option('ld_number_of_links');
$ld_number_of_links_widget = get_option('ld_number_of_links_widget');
$ld_number_of_rss_links    = get_option('ld_number_of_rss_links');
$ld_number_of_links_be     = get_option('ld_number_of_links_be');
$ld_repeated_link          = get_option('ld_repeated_link');
$ld_linkdump_fd            = get_option('ld_linkdump_fd');
$ld_linkdump_rss_desc      = get_option('ld_linkdump_rss_desc');
$ld_branding_bg            = get_option('ld_branding_bg');
$ld_archive_days           = get_option('ld_archive_days');
$ld_archive_pid            = get_option('ld_archive_pid');
$ld_show_counter           = get_option('ld_show_counter');
$ld_show_description       = get_option('ld_show_description');
$ld_show_description_w     = get_option('ld_show_description_w');
$ld_send_notification      = get_option('ld_send_notification');
$ld_auto_approve           = get_option('ld_auto_approve');
$ld_short_url              = get_option('ld_short_url');

or this:

$options['ld_linkdump_title'] = get_option('ld_linkdump_title');
$options['ld_linkdump_widget_title']  = get_option('ld_linkdump_widget_title');
$options['nw_option']                 = get_option('ld_open_nw');
 .
 .
 .

Answer 1

I don't think you should consider this from a performance standpoint, rather, look at it from a readability standpoint. The second version collects, well, a collection of things, into a single storage mechanism; from a readability standpoint it's superior.

Not that it matters, but from a performance standpoint I can't imagine the second one costs much, if anything, certainly not enough to overcome the readability benefit.