The Top 100 Caching Functions in PHP

There are a lot of ways to cache in PHP. Some people use a caching solution like APCu or WinCache, while others prefer to work with memcached or Redis. There are also many different approaches and use cases to consider when choosing which tool to work with. This article will not tell you which option is best for you — instead, it will introduce you to the 100 most used native PHP functions and show you how they can be put to good use.

Caching is an incredibly useful tool in any web application, helping to improve page load times and reduce server workload. However, it's easy to miss important details when new developers start using it. This guide will help them avoid the most common mistakes.

APCu is a memory cache for PHP, allowing you to store object cache data in your server's memory. It works by storing precompiled script bytecode in shared memory, removing the need for PHP to load and parse the code for every request.

Unlike PHP's own built-in opcache, APCu is local to each PHP process and system. This means that if you run your PHP applications as multiple Fast-CGI processes on the same server, APCu won't be able to share the same data between them. For this reason, you should use memcached or other solutions when working with APCu.

A function to create a normalized cache key based on the provided value. This is done by serializing the value, applying MD5 hashing, and then prefixing it with $keyPrefix. The normalized key can then be retrieved by calling apcu_get($key).