In PHP, how do I cache arrays for beginners?

Caching arrays in PHP can significantly improve performance by reducing the need to repetitively compute the same data. This is especially useful when dealing with large datasets. Below is a simple example of how to cache arrays in PHP using file-based caching.

<?php // Simple array to be cached $data = array('apple', 'banana', 'orange', 'grape', 'pear'); // Function to save the array to cache function cacheArray($filename, $array) { file_put_contents($filename, serialize($array)); } // Function to retrieve the array from cache function getCachedArray($filename) { if (file_exists($filename)) { return unserialize(file_get_contents($filename)); } return null; // return null if cache doesn't exist } // Cache filename $cacheFile = 'cache/data.cache'; // Try to get cached data $cachedData = getCachedArray($cacheFile); if ($cachedData !== null) { echo "Data loaded from cache: "; print_r($cachedData); } else { // Cache the array if not already cached cacheArray($cacheFile, $data); echo "Data cached for future use."; } ?>

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