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

If you are only checking for existing files, use is_file(). file_exists() checks for a existing file OR directory, so maybe is_file() could be a little faster.