Question

I’m guessing this has been asked already. I know in php you can change the datatype of a variable as in this example.

$var = '3';

if (is_string($var))
    echo "variable is now string <br />";

$var = $var+1;

if (is_int($var))
    echo "variable is now integer <br />";

However can a variable hold more than one data type at a single point in time?

Answer 1

If you add var_dump like this in your code:

$var = '3';
var_dump($var);
if (is_string($var))
    echo "variable is now string <br />\n";
$var = $var+1;
var_dump($var);
if (is_int($var))
    echo "variable is now integer <br />\n";

Your output will be:

string(1) "3"
variable is now string <br />
int(4)
variable is now integer <br />

Which indicates a simple rule that PHP lets you use a variable in whatever way you like and changes the data type it repsents as you use in your code.