GET vs SUBMIT Button to show sections on one index.php page?

Posted on 16th Feb 2014 by admin

Just curious if one of these ways is better (i.e. more efficient) than the other.

I have an index.php page where there is a menu across the top with 5 choices. For example, HOME | MONKEYS | CATS | DOGS | KANGAROOS.

I have ALL the code for those 5 pages on that single index.php file. Now is it better to...

1. Use FORM SUBMIT BUTTONS for each menu option. So I'd have the action of the form be "index.php" and then code like this for the menu...

Code: <input type='submit' name='submit' value='HOME' ><input type='submit' name='submit' value='MONKEYS' >
And then I would have IF statements to see which Submit button was clicked and show the right info accordingly.

OR

2. Use appended URLs and then use GET to see which info should show, as in...

Code: <a href="index.php?page=home">HOME</a>|<a href="index.php?page=monkeys">MONKEYS</a> (etc, etc)
And then have IF statements using GET to check the URL and show the right info accordingly.

I'm not sure one way is better than the other, but just curious if anyone has any thoughts. Like maybe one of these processes in more server intensive than the other??

NOTE: If I use Google Analytics, I guess might help to see appended URLs to know which page got more hits, rather than just seeing info for index.php without knowing if they visited MONKEYS, or CATS or whatever. But please answer the question as if Google Analytics was not relevant.

Thanks

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