Is using output buffering considered a bad practice? [closed]
Output buffering in some circumstances is almost mandatory. With PHP as soon as you output something back to the user, headers are sent. Therefore if you get partway through processing a page and something happens that requires a header being sent you cant unless buffering is turned on. Otherwise you get the dreaded "Cannot modify header information – headers already sent".
Some will tell you you shouldn't code that way. humbug I say!
With buffers turned on your code can be more flexible.
output buffering is NOT a bad practice. For example it can speed up the loading of your website by using GZIP compression(although if possible it is better to do this inside .htaccess).
<?php if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip')) ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); else ob_start(); ?>Disadvantages: I don't know. Good question.
P.S: also I found this topic about output buffering.