PHP type comparison tables

The following tables demonstrate behaviors of PHP types and comparison operators, for both loose and strict comparisons. This supplemental is also related to the manual section on type juggling. Inspiration was provided by various user comments and by the work over at » BlueShoes.

Before utilizing these tables, it's important to understand types and their meanings. For example, "42" is a string while 42 is an int. false is a bool while "false" is a string.

Note:

HTML Forms do not pass integers, floats, or booleans; they pass strings. To find out if a string is numeric, you may use is_numeric().

Note:

Simply doing if ($x) while $x is undefined will generate an error of level E_NOTICE. Instead, consider using empty() or isset() and/or initialize your variables.

Note:

Some numeric operations can result in a value represented by the constant NAN. Any loose or strict comparisons of this value against any other value, including itself, but except true, will have a result of false. (i.e. NAN != NAN and NAN !== NAN) Examples of operations that produce NAN include sqrt(-1), asin(2), and acosh(0).

Comparisons of $x with PHP functions

Expression	gettype()	empty()	is_null()	isset()	bool : if($x)
$x = "";	string	true	false	true	false
$x = null;	NULL	true	true	false	false
var $x;	NULL	true	true	false	false
$x is undefined	NULL	true	true	false	false
$x = [];	array	true	false	true	false
$x = ['a', 'b'];	array	false	false	true	true
$x = false;	bool	true	false	true	false
$x = true;	bool	false	false	true	true
$x = 1;	int	false	false	true	true
$x = 42;	int	false	false	true	true
$x = 0;	int	true	false	true	false
$x = -1;	int	false	false	true	true
$x = "1";	string	false	false	true	true
$x = "0";	string	true	false	true	false
$x = "-1";	string	false	false	true	true
$x = "php";	string	false	false	true	true
$x = "true";	string	false	false	true	true
$x = "false";	string	false	false	true	true

Loose comparisons with ==

	true	false	1	0	-1	"1"	"0"	"-1"	null	[]	"php"	""
true	true	false	true	false	true	true	false	true	false	false	true	false
false	false	true	false	true	false	false	true	false	true	true	false	true
1	true	false	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false
0	false	true	false	true	false	false	true	false	true	false	false*	false*
-1	true	false	false	false	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	false
"1"	true	false	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false
"0"	false	true	false	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false
"-1"	true	false	false	false	true	false	false	true	false	false	false	false
null	false	true	false	true	false	false	false	false	true	true	false	true
[]	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	true	false	false
"php"	true	false	false	false*	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false
""	false	true	false	false*	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	true

* true prior to PHP 8.0.0.

Strict comparisons with ===

	true	false	1	0	-1	"1"	"0"	"-1"	null	[]	"php"	""
true	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false
false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false
1	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false
0	false	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false
-1	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false	false
"1"	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false	false
"0"	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	false	false	false
"-1"	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	false	false
null	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false	false
[]	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false	false
"php"	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true	false
""	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	false	true