PHP Tutorial => Variable Value Truthiness and Identical Operator

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Example

In PHP, variable values have an associated "truthiness" so even non-boolean values will equate to true or false. This allows any variable to be used in a conditional block, e.g.

if ($var == true) { /* explicit version */ }
if ($var) { /* $var == true is implicit */ }

Here are some fundamental rules for different types of variable values:

Strings with non-zero length equate to true including strings containing only whitepace such as ' '.
Empty strings '' equate to false.

$var = '';
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = '   ';
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // false

Integers equate to true if they are nonzero, while zero equates to false.

$var = -1;
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true
$var = 99;
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true
$var = 0;
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false

null equates to false

$var = null;
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

Empty strings '' and string zero '0' equate to false.

$var = '';
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = '0';
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

Floating-point values equate to true if they are nonzero, while zero values equates to false.
- NAN (PHP's Not-a-Number) equates to true, i.e. NAN == true is true. This is because NAN is a nonzero floating-point value.
- Zero-values include both +0 and -0 as defined by IEEE 754. PHP does not distinguish between +0 and -0 in its double-precision floating-point, i.e. floatval('0') == floatval('-0') is true.
  - In fact, floatval('0') === floatval('-0').
  - Additionally, both floatval('0') == false and floatval('-0') == false.

$var = NAN;
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // true
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // false

$var = floatval('-0');
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

$var = floatval('0') == floatval('-0');
$var_is_true = ($var == true); // false
$var_is_false = ($var == false); // true

IDENTICAL OPERATOR

In the PHP Documentation for Comparison Operators, there is an Identical Operator ===. This operator can be used to check whether a variable is identical to a reference value:

$var = null;
$var_is_null = $var === null; // true
$var_is_true = $var === true; // false
$var_is_false = $var === false; // false

It has a corresponding not identical operator !==:

$var = null;
$var_is_null = $var !== null; // false
$var_is_true = $var !== true; // true
$var_is_false = $var !== false; // true

The identical operator can be used as an alternative to language functions like is_null().

USE CASE WITH strpos()

The strpos($haystack, $needle) language function is used to locate the index at which $needle occurs in $haystack, or whether it occurs at all. The strpos() function is case sensitive; if case-insensitive find is what you need you can go with stripos($haystack, $needle)

The strpos & stripos function also contains third parameter offset (int) which if specified, search will start this number of characters counted from the beginning of the string. Unlike strrpos and strripos, the offset cannot be negative

The function can return:

0 if $needle is found at the beginning of $haystack;
a non-zero integer specifying the index if $needle is found somewhere other than the beginning in $haystack;
and value false if $needle is not found anywhere in $haystack.

Because both 0 and false have truthiness false in PHP but represent distinct situations for strpos(), it is important to distinguish between them and use the identical operator === to look exactly for false and not just a value that equates to false.

$idx = substr($haystack, $needle);
if ($idx === false) 
{
    // logic for when $needle not found in $haystack
} 
else
{
    // logic for when $needle found in $haystack
}

Alternatively, using the not identical operator:

$idx = substr($haystack, $needle);
if ($idx !== false) 
{
    // logic for when $needle found in $haystack
} 
else
{
    // logic for when $needle not found in $haystack
}

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PHP Variables Variable Value Truthiness and Identical Operator

Example

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