I prefer writing (!$a == 'hello') much more than ($a != 'hello'), but I wondered about the performance.
So I did a benchmark:
<?php
for($bench = 0; $bench < 3; $bench++)
{
$start = microtime(true);
$a = 1;
for($i = 0; $i < 100000000; $i++)
{
if(!$a == 'hello') $b++;
}
$end = microtime(true);
echo "Used time: " . ($end-$start) . "\n";
}
?>
and it results with
# if($a != 'hello')
Used time: 12.552895069122
Used time: 12.548940896988
Used time: 12.470285177231
# if(!$a == 'hello')
Used time: 7.6532161235809
Used time: 7.6426539421082
Used time: 7.6452689170837
