Chapter 6. Types

PHP supports the following types:

• integer

• floating-point numbers

• string

• array

• object

The type of a variable is usually not set by the programmer; rather, it is decided at runtime by PHP depending on the context in which that variable is used.

If you would like to force a variable to be converted to a certain type, you may either cast the variable or use the settype() function on it.

Note that a variable may behave in different manners in certain situations, depending on what type it is a the time. For more information, see the section on Type Juggling.

$a = 1234; # decimal number
$a = -123; # a negative number
$a = 0123; # octal number (equivalent to 83 decimal)
$a = 0x12; # hexadecimal number (equivalent to 18 decimal)