Page 77 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Chapter 3: PHP Language Basics
In the following example, a variable ’ s value is cast to various different types at the time that the
value is displayed:
$test_var = 8.23;
echo $test_var . “ < br / > ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (string) $test_var . “ < br / > ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (int) $test_var . “ < br / > ”; // Displays “8”
echo (float) $test_var . “ < br / > ”; // Displays “8.23”
echo (boolean) $test_var . “ < br / > ”; // Displays “1”

Note that $test_var ’ s type isn ’ t changed at any point; it remains a floating - point variable, containing
the value 8.23 , at all times. All that changes is the type of the data that ’ s passed to the echo statement.

Here ’ s the full list of casts that you can use in PHP:

Function Description

(int) value or (integer) value Returns value cast to an integer

(float) value Returns value cast to a float

(string) value Returns value cast to a string

(bool) value or (boolean) value Returns value cast to a Boolean
(array) value Returns value cast to an array

(object) value Returns value cast to an object

You can also cast a value to an integer, floating - point, or string value using three PHP functions:

Function Description
intval( value ) Returns value cast to an integer

floatval( value ) Returns value cast to a float

strval( value ) Returns value cast to a string

By the way, intval() has another use: converting from a non – base - 10 integer to a base - 10 integer. To
use this feature, pass intval() a string representation of the non – base - 10 integer, followed by the base
of the integer. For example, intval( “ 11 ” , 5 ) returns a value of 6 (the base - 5 number 11
converted to a decimal number).

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