Question

What type do arithmetic operators (+ – / *) have in PHP? I have such situation:

$argX= "1";
$argY = "2";
$operator = "+";

I want to add up two arguments using the operator in the variable. Smth like this:

$result = $argX $operator $argY;

I know that arguments are strings, so I convert them to numbers first.

$argX = $argX+0;
$argY = $argY+0;

But in what should I convert $operator to add the arguments using a value of $operator variable? How is it possible?

Answer 1

No, this is not possible. You cannot use expressions for operators in PHP. Operators are operators, they don’t have a type. You’ll have to do something like this:

switch ($operator) {
    case '+' :  $result = $argX + $argY; break;
    case '-' :  $result = $argX - $argY; break;
    ...
}

You could eval it, but I wouldn’t recommend that.