double buffering of returned database rows

[auroraeosrose]

wp-db.php grabs and stores all rows upon calling the query method, and then frees the result

it is using the mysql_query() function to do the query
This function buffers the rows internally in php - so the rows are being queried, fetched and buffered internally into php, and then moved into the db class

The end result is that the resulting rows are being buffered twice, a complete waste of memory and time

The solution is to replace the mysql_query() function with mysql_unbuffered_query()

since the results are immediately fetched and then the result freed, there should be no problems and you eliminate the extra step php is using to buffer the contents

mysql_unbuffered_query()has been available since php 4.0.6 and wordpress requires php 4.1 or higher

Looks like any side-effects will be silent due to existing @ on affected lines.

Anybody going to profile this change?

a very quick performance comparison(20 queries, 100 iterations) seems to indicate that _unbuffered is marginally faster than without. however.
​http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/04/04/webdb.html?page=last (section 8)
makes some valid points about it, It may not be the kind of function you would want to use for _all_ WP queries.

I don't think it's worth the trouble for implementing a whole system for handling unbuffered queries.

Forgot to add: if someone wants to do the system, by all means, open this ticket back up and post your patch. I for one would love to see it.