This is a short PHP tutorial on how to convert a string into a float or decimal variable. This can be important in cases where a PHP function expects a double variable.
Take the following error as an example:
Warning: deg2rad() expects parameter 1 to be double, string given in file.php on line 71
This warning was thrown because PHP’s deg2rad function was given a string variable when it expects a double value.
To fix this, we can simply parse the string as a float value by using the floatval function:
//A string containing a number. $number = "2.392"; //var_dump it out and you will see that it is //a string type. var_dump($number); //Use floatval to get the float value //of our string variable $number = floatval($number); //Do another var_dump and you will see that //it is now a float variable. var_dump($number);
In the example above, we essentially extracted the float value from our string variable.
Instead of using the floatval function, you could also use type casting (aka type conversion):
//Using typecasting to parse //the string as a float. $number = (float) ($number);
In the example above, we used PHP’s type casting feature to cast our $number string as a float / decimal value.
Hopefully, you found this guide easy and straight-forward!