file_exists() is too slow in PHP. Can anyone suggest a faster alternative?

Question

When displaying images on our website, we check if the file exists with a call to file_exists(). We fall back to a dummy image if the file was missing.

Howe

Answer 1

We fall back to a dummy image if the file was missing

If you're just interested in falling back to this dummy image, you might want to consider letting the client negotiate with the server by means of a redirect (to the dummy image) on file-not-found.

That way you'll just have a little redirection overhead and a not-noticeable delay on the client side. At least you'll get rid of the "expensive" (which it isn't, I know) call to file_exists.

Just a thought.