Question

For example I have a statement:

$var = '2*2-3+8'; //variable type is string

How to make it to be equal 9 ?

Answer 1

From this page, a very awesome (simple) calculation validation regular expression, written by Richard van Velzen. Once you have that, and it matches, you can rest assured that you can use eval over the string. Always make sure the input is validated before using eval!

<?php
$regex = '{
    \A        # the absolute beginning of the string
    \h*        # optional horizontal whitespace
    (        # start of group 1 (this is called recursively)
    (?:
        \(        # literal (

        \h*
        [-+]?        # optionally prefixed by + or -
        \h*

        # A number
        (?: \d* \. \d+ | \d+ \. \d* | \d+) (?: [eE] [+-]? \d+ )?

        (?:
            \h*
            [-+*/]        # an operator
            \h*
            (?1)        # recursive call to the first pattern.
        )?

        \h*
        \)        # closing )

        |        # or: just one number

        \h*
        [-+]?
        \h*

        (?: \d* \. \d+ | \d+ \. \d* | \d+) (?: [eE] [+-]? \d+ )?
    )

    # and the rest, of course.
    (?:
        \h*
        [-+*/]
        \h*
        (?1)
    )?
    )
    \h*

    \z        # the absolute ending of the string.
}x';

$var = '2*2-3+8';

if( 0 !== preg_match( $regex, $var ) ) {
    $answer = eval( 'return ' . $var . ';' );
    echo $answer;
}
else {
    echo "Invalid calculation.";
}