json_benchmark.php

<?php
$mode = 'php';
benchmark();
$data = array('some_array' => array('another_array' => array('some_string')));
for($i = 0; $i <= 2000; $i++)
{
	if($mode == 'json')
	{
		json_decode(json_encode($data), true);
	}
	elseif($mode == 'php')
	{
		unserialize(serialize($data));
	}
}
echo $mode . ' - ';
benchmark();
die();




function getTime()
{
	$timer = explode(' ', microtime());
	return $timer[1] + $timer[0];
}

function benchmark()
{
	static $start = 0;

	if(!$start)
		$start = getTime();
	else
		echo round(getTime() - $start, 6) . ' seconds' . PHP_EOL;
}

stdout

obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
json - 0.027227 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
json - 0.018487 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
json - 0.01908 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
json - 0.019124 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
json - 0.018601 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
php - 0.016961 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
php - 0.016656 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
php - 0.01743 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
php - 0.017042 seconds
obsidian@lithion-mint ~/Documents $ php benchmark.php 
php - 0.017177 seconds