Performance: PHP and MS SQL Server: SQLCMD using Exec or Driver

Question

Hello all,

I am currrently making queries to my SQL Server using SQLCMD and I run this from PHPs exec() function. I was hoping to clarify that this isn't as efficient as the driver for SQL Server for PHP: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2005/en/us/PHP-Driver.aspx. I am not sure if this is the same as http://us3.php.net/manual/en/book.mssql.php?

I find that everytime I run an exec command it is quite a slow response and I was hoping to get this confirmed before I move to this new driver and implement it. Is there a performance difference using this Driver rather than using the exec function to launch SQLCMD?

I know this is a bit fluffy, but I really appreciate help on this decision.

Thanks all

Answer 1

Ugg, yeah, get rid of your exec and use the php client library. You also won't have to deal with parsing your result sets back off the command line.

Answer 2

Launching another command, using exec or one of the other Program execution Functions, takes time ; using some PHP function/classes will probably always be faster -- and easier :

• no need to launch another command
• no problem for parameters passing
• no parsing of the output : you'll get native PHP data as output
• less problems like "command not found", or differences between UNIX/Linux and Windows
• no problem with safe_mode and the like

I would definitly go with using some function provided by a PHP extension, instead of using exec.

As a sidenote, in this specific case :

• the SQL Server driver for PHP is currently only available on Windows platforms -- doesn't exist for Linux :-(
• it's not available as a PDO driver : you have to use the specific sqlsrv_* functions