PHP is not a very strict language when it comes down to data types.
Strings:
$string = "This is a string";
Strings are values that contain characters. This can include basically everything you can type on your keyboard.
Integers:
$string = 1;
Integers are values that just contain numbers. Notice in the example above that there are no quotes?
Well, you can write an integer like that, or like this:
$string = "1";
PHP automatically converts numbers contained in a string with no other characters into a integer. The only time you need to be careful of this is when you are using operators (I will discuss that in another post).
Boolean:
$string = true;
$string2 = false;
Booleans are values that contain either true or false. They can be used in if statements like:
$string = true;
if ($string)//checks if $string is true
{
echo '$string is true';
}
else
{
echo '$string is false';
}
Hope that helps you understand data types in PHP better. Obviously I have just scratched the surface in my explanations.
Feel free to comment and ask any questions 😀
Great tip. I’m just getting into PHP. And you explain things in an easy to understand way. I hope you keep offering more great tips like theses.
Thank you for the kind words 😀
I will definately be producing more of these help articles 🙂