Question

I tried looking up (int) but could only find documentation for the function int() in the PHP manual.

Could someone explain to me what the above code does, and exactly how it works?

Answer 1

It convert (tries at least) whatever the value of the variable is to a integer. If there are any letter etc, in front it will convert to a 0.

<?php

$var = '1a';

echo $var;               // 1a
echo (int) $var;     //1

$var2 = 'a2';
echo $var2;           //a2
echo (int) $var2;     // 0

?>