Question

This:

$difference = 05-1;

results in

4

same if I do this:

$difference = 05-01;

is there a inbuilt way to subtract while keeping leading zeros? I know I can check to see if the difference has only 1 character or not and if so add a leading zero but was just wondering if there is a default way to get the result back with 0 already in it.

Answer 1

No I dont think PHP will natively keep the leading 0’s unless its a float. In PHPs mind 4 is 4 not 04 tho 0.4 is 0.4

So if you need the leading 0 in ints lower the 10 pad it with str_pad():

<?php 
$difference = (05-1);

echo str_pad($difference, 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);//04
?>

<?php 
$difference = 234;

echo str_pad($difference, 2, "0", STR_PAD_LEFT);//234
?>