note 86171 added to language.types.boolean

CODING PRACTICE... Much of the confusion about booleans (but not limited to booleans) is the fact that PHP itself automatically makes a type cast or conversion for you, which may NOT be what you want or expect. In most cases, it's better to provide functions that give your program the exact behavior you want. <?php function boolNumber($bValue = false) { // returns integer return ($bValue ? 1 : 0); } function boolString($bValue = false) { // returns string return ($bValue ? 'true' : 'false'); } $a = true; // boolean value echo 'boolean $a AS string = ' . boolString($a) . '<br>'; // boolean as a string echo 'boolean $a AS number = ' . boolNumber($a) . '<br>'; // boolean as a number echo '<br>'; $b = (45 > 90); // boolean value echo 'boolean $b AS string = ' . boolString($b) . '<br>'; // boolean as a string echo 'boolean $b AS number = ' . boolNumber($b) . '<br>'; // boolean as a number echo '<br>'; $c = boolNumber(10 > 8) + boolNumber(!(5 > 10)); // adding booleans echo 'integer $c = ' . $c .'<br>'; ?> Results in the following being printed... boolean $a AS string = true boolean $a AS number = 1 boolean $b AS string = false boolean $b AS number = 0 integer $c = 2 In other words, if we know what we want out of our program, we can create functions to accommodate. Here, we just wanted 'manual control' over numbers and strings, so that PHP doesn't confuse us. ---- Server IP: 69.147.83.197 Probable Submitter: 67.150.174.235 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/86171 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/86171 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/86171 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php