You can change a variable's value via type casting.
Place the name of the desired data type in parentheses before the variable's name.
The variable itself remains unaffected.
In the following example, a variable's value is cast to various different types at the time that the value is displayed:
<?php $test_var = 8.23; echo $test_var; echo '\n'; echo (string) $test_var; echo '\n'; echo (int) $test_var; echo '\n'; echo (float) $test_var; echo '\n'; echo (boolean) $test_var; ?>/*from w w w . j av a 2s . co m*/
$test_var 's type isn't changed at any point.
It remains a floating-point variable, containing the value 8.23 , at all times.
All that changes is the type of the data that's passed to the echo statement.