PHP Data Types

PHP Data Types

Variables can store data of different types, and different data types can do different things.

PHP supports the following data types:

• String
• Integer
• Float (floating point numbers - also called double)
• Boolean
• Array
• Object
• NULL
• Resource

Finding the Data Type

To inspect the data type and value of a variable, use the var_dump() function. This is an incredibly useful function for debugging!

<?php
$x = 5985;
var_dump($x);

echo "\n";
$y = "Hello";
var_dump($y);
?>

PHP NULL Value

Null is a special data type which can have only one value: NULL.

A variable of data type NULL is a variable that has no value assigned to it. If a variable is created without a value, it is automatically assigned a value of NULL.