In this chapter, we will learn how to harness PHP 7's performance boosts using most of its key optimizations.

Also, we will explore how better understanding data structures and datatypes, and how using simplified functions can help a PHP application's global performance along its critical execution path.

Moreover, we will learn how it is best to avoid using inefficient structures, like most dynamic ones, in our PHP code.

Finally, although PHP is not a functional language, we will see how some functional techniques can be of immediate help when optimizing PHP code.

Thus, in this chapter, we will cover the following points:

• PHP 7 optimizations
• Identifying possible optimizations and avoiding dynamic structures
• Functional programming and memoization