Question

If I have a variable that is given a “numeric” value from a PHP echo…

var names_each = <?php echo $ind_name_each; ?>;

…and $ind_name_each is derived from a MySQL column of type decimal(5,2),
is it a number or a string in JavaScript?

if all_total = 6.00
and names_each = 5.00
and I do this:

all_total = parseInt(names_each) + all_total;

I get 56.00

all_total = names_each + all_total;

I get 5.006.00

all_total = parseFloat(names_each) + all_total;

I get 56.00

I need some understanding here.

Answer 1

Both variables are strings:

var names_each = '5.0', all_total = '6.0';

so the + operation concatenates those strings:

console.log(names_each + all_total);  // '5.0' + '6.0' => '5.06.0'
console.log(parseInt(names_each) + all_total); // 5 + '6.0' => '5' + '6.0' => '56.0'

but if you parse them to numbers first, then you can use + to add them:

all_total = parseInt(names_each) + parseInt(all_total);
console.log(all_total);  // 5 + 6 => 11