# Performance of array_shift and array_pop in PHP We have confirmed that array\_shift is much slower than array\_pop in PHP. Code: ```

// Create an array with 100000 elements

$array = array();

for ($i = 0; $i < 100000; $i++) {

$array[] = rand();

}

// Remove the last 1000 elements using array_pop

$start = microtime(true);

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {

array_pop($array);

}

$stop = microtime(true);

printf(“array_pop takes %.5f seconds\n”, $stop – $start);

// Add back 1000 elements

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {

$array[] = rand();

}

// Remove the first 1000 elements using array_shift

$start = microtime(true);

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {

array_shift($array);

}

$stop = microtime(true);

printf(“array_shift takes %.5f seconds\n”, $stop – $start);

// Add back 1000 elements

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {

$array[] = rand();

}

// Remove the first 1000 elements by reversing the array and popping 1000 elements

$start = microtime(true);

$array_rev = array_reverse($array);

for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) {

array_pop($array_rev);

}

$stop = microtime(true);

printf(“array_reverse + array_pop takes %.5f seconds\n”, $stop – $start);

``` Result: ```

array_pop takes 0.00089 seconds

array_shift takes 15.15544 seconds

array_reverse + array_pop takes 0.03934 seconds

```