title: PHP Includes and Memory
body: <p>I hope this is not a completely stupid question.  I have searched quite a bit for an answer, but I can't find (or recognise) one exactly on point.</p>
  
  <p>I understand that functions in PHP are not parsed until actually run.  Therefore, if I have a large class with many functions, only one of which requires a large include file, will I potentially save memory if I only include the "include file" within the function (as opposed to at the top of the class file)?</p>
  
  <p>I presume that, even if this would save memory, it would only do so until such time as the function was called, after which the memory would not be released until the current script stopped running?</p>
  
  <p>Many Thanks,</p>
  
  <p>Rob </p>