Thoughts on Feature Request - Arithmetic

In-Built PHP Functions for parsing of basic arithmetic and if possible fraction to decimal and decimal to fraction $arithmetic_string = "3*5"; echo arith($arithmetic_string); // returns float 15 $arithmetic_string = "1/2"; echo arith($arithmetic_string); // returns float 0.5 $fraction_string = "1/4"; echo fracdec($fraction_string); // returns float 0.25 $dec_string = "0.5"; echo decfrac($dec_string); // returns string "1/4" I've used php for years, came accross the need for this today and was suprised such a basic command wasn't there.. currently the only way I can see to do it would be to eval.. which isn't the most secure method for such a basic need. Regards Nathan