Bug #1974: Comparison of strings "2.2" and "2.20" returns TRUE

From: stewart-a@moving-picture.co.uk Operating system: Linux 2.2.5-15 PHP version: 3.0.11 PHP Bug Type: Other Bug description: Comparison of strings "2.2" and "2.20" returns TRUE Strings seems to get converted to double for "==" comparison. <? $a = (string) 2.2; $b = (string) 2.20; if ( "$a" == "$b" ) { echo "The string $a equals string $b"; } else { echo "The string $a does not equal string $b"; } ?> Clearly the "strings" 2.2 and 2.20 should not be equivalent. If this isn't considered a bug then how does one compare two strings like this. I've tried : if (strval($a) == strval($b) but the only successful workaround I've found is: if ( "$a" == "$b" && strlen($a) == strlen($b) ) { PHP Modules: ./configure --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-apache=/usr/local/src/apache_1.3.6 --enable-track-vars Configuration php3.ini file path is set to: /usr/local/lib Directive Master Value Local Value arg_separator & & asp_tags 0 0 auto_prepend_file none none auto_append_file none none browscap none none cgi_ext none none debugger.host none none debugger.port 0 0 define_syslog_variables 0 0 display_errors 1 1 doc_root none none enable_dl 1 1 engine 1 1 error_log none none error_append_string none none error_prepend_string none none error_reporting 55 55 extension_dir none none gpc_order GPC GPC ignore_user_abort 0 0 include_path none none isapi_ext none none last_modified 0 0 log_errors 0 0 max execution time 30 30 magic_quotes_gpc 0 0 magic_quotes_runtime 0 0 magic_quotes_sybase 0 0 memory limit 8388608 8388608 nsapi_ext none none open_basedir none none precision 14 14 safe_mode 0 0 safe_mode_exec_dir /usr/local/php/bin /usr/local/php/bin sendmail_from none none sendmail_path /usr/sbin/sendmail -t /usr/sbin/sendmail -t short_open_tag 1 1 smtp localhost localhost sql_safe_mode 0 0 track_errors 0 0 track_vars 1 1 upload_max_filesize 2097152 2097152 upload_tmp_dir none none user_dir none none warn_plus_overloading 0 0 xbithack 0 0 browscap none none y2k_compliance 0 0 highlight_comment #FF8000 #FF8000 highlight_default #0000BB #0000BB highlight_html #000000 #000000 highlight_string #DD0000 #DD0000 highlight_bg #FFFFFF #FFFFFF highlight_keyword #007700 #007700