Cast a numeric string as float type data

What is the PHP command that does somethi开发者_开发知识库ng similar to intval(), but for decimals?

Eg. I have string "33.66" and I want to convert it to decimal value before sending it to MSSQL.

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How about floatval()?

$f = floatval("33.66");

You can shave a few nanoseconds off of type conversions by using casting instead of a function call. But this is in the realm of micro-optimization, so don't worry about it unless you do millions of these operations per second.

$f = (float) "33.66";

I also recommend learning how to use sscanf() because sometimes it's the most convenient solution.

list($f) = sscanf("33.66", "%f");

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If you mean a float:

$var = floatval("33.66")

Or

$var = (float)"33.66";

If you need the exact precision of a decimal, there is no such type in PHP. There is the Arbitrary Precision Mathematics extension, but it will return strings, so it's only usefull for you when performing calculations.

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You could try floatval, but floats are potentially lossy.

You could try running the number through sprintf to get it to a more correct format. The format string %.2f would produce a floating-point-formatted number with two decimal places. Excess places get rounded.

I'm not sure if sprintf will convert the value to a float internally for formatting, so the lossy problem might still exist. That being said, if you're only worrying about two decimal places, you shouldn't need to worry about precision loss.

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php is a loosely typed language. It doesn't matter if you have

$x = 33.66;

or

$x = "33.66";

sending it to mssql will be the same regardless.

Are you just wanting to make sure it is formatted properly, or is an actual float?