Question

Can someone please explain in detail what these if statements are doing?

What does the three === signs to in the first one, and What does the single & in the second mean?

$aProfile = getProfileInfo($iId);
    if($aProfile === false)
        return false;

    if(!((int)$aProfile['Role'] & $iRole))
        return false;

Answer 1

=== tests for type-safe equality.

'3' == 3 will return true, but '3' === 3 will not, because one’s a string and one’s an integer. Similarly, null == 0 will return true, but null === 0 will not; 10.00 == 10 will return true, but 10.00 === 10 will not.

& is the bitwise AND operator. It returns a bitmask in which a bit is set if both the corresponding bits are set from the original two bitmasks.

For example:

$x = 5;
$y = 17;
echo $x & $y;

causes 1 to be echoed. $x is ...000101, $y is ...010001. The only bit that is set in both of them is the rightmost one, so you get ...000001, which is 1.