PHP Data Types

PHP has several data types that you can use to store and manipulate data. Here’s a quick rundown with examples:

1. Integers

• Description: Whole numbers, positive or negative, without decimal points.
• Example:

  $age = 25;
  echo $age; // Output: 25
  

2. Floats (Floating Point Numbers)

• Description: Numbers with decimal points.
• Example:

  $price = 19.99;
  echo $price; // Output: 19.99
  

3. Strings

• Description: Sequences of characters enclosed in quotes (single or double).
• Example:

  $name = "John Doe";
  echo $name; // Output: John Doe
  

4. Booleans

• Description: Represents truth values, true or false.
• Example:

  $is_logged_in = true;
  if ($is_logged_in) {
      echo "Welcome back!"; // Output: Welcome back!
  }
  

5. Arrays

• Description: Collections of values indexed by keys (can be numbers or strings).
• Example:

  $fruits = array("apple", "banana", "cherry");
  echo $fruits[1]; // Output: banana
  

6. Objects

• Description: Instances of classes, used in object-oriented programming.
• Example:

  class Car {
      public $color;
      function __construct($color) {
          $this->color = $color;
      }
  }
  
  $myCar = new Car("red");
  echo $myCar->color; // Output: red
  

7. NULL

• Description: Represents a variable with no value.
• Example:

  $emptyVar = null;
  if (is_null($emptyVar)) {
      echo "The variable is null."; // Output: The variable is null.
  }
  

8. Resources

• Description: Special variables that hold references to external resources (e.g., database connections).
• Example:

  $conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
  if ($conn) {
      echo "Database connection established."; // Output: Database connection established.
  }
  

Each data type in PHP has its specific use case and behaves differently in operations and functions.