Question

I have a function that is called over and over from my code where I can pass a variable and the function acts differently if the parameter is a “real” (int/float) number (in other words does not do any manipulation nor add the quotes around it when passed to a MySQL query). Currently my code does a double type check, but is there a better way ?

$a = 1;
$b = '1';
$is_num = (is_numeric($a) && !is_string($a)); //true
$is_num = (is_numeric($b) && !is_string($b)); //false

is there a better faster way to do this ?

for example (VERY simplified version):

$query = 'SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE ';
$field = 'id';
$operator = '=';
$value = 2;

$query .= '`'.$field.'`'.$operator;
$is_num = (is_numeric($value) && !is_string($value));
if($is_num){
    $query .=$value;
}else{
    $query .='"'.mysql_real_escape_string((string)$value).'"';
}
$query .=';';

Answer 1

If your number is always an integer, then you can use is_int. If there is a possibility that it might be a decimal-point number and you want that to return $is_num == true then no, you have to do the check as you are or check either type with is_int($a) || is_float($a)

The specific purpose of is_numeric is to check if it is “numeric or a numeric string” and there is no “all number types” catch-all.

However, given your comment that this is for a query builder, why not just add quotes if is_string and not otherwise?