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

PHP String

A string is a sequence of characters, like "Hello world!".

A string can be any text inside quotes. You can use single or double quotes:

Example

<?php
$x = "Hello world!";
$y = 'Hello world!';

echo $x;
echo "<br>";
echo $y;
?>

PHP String type

PHP string is a sequence of characters i.e., used to store and manipulate text. PHP supports only 256-character set and so that it does not offer native Unicode support. There are 4 ways to specify a string literal in PHP.

  1. single quoted
  2. double quoted
  3. heredoc syntax
  4. newdoc syntax (since PHP 5.3)

Single Quoted

We can create a string in PHP by enclosing the text in a single-quote. It is the easiest way to specify string in PHP.

For specifying a literal single quote, escape it with a backslash (\) and to specify a literal backslash (\) use double backslash (\\). All the other instances with backslash such as \r or \n, will be output same as they specified instead of having any special meaning.

Example
  1. <?php  
  2.        $str='Hello text within single quote';  
  3.        echo $str;  
  4. ?>  

  5. Output:

    Hello text within single quote

Double Quoted

In PHP, we can specify string through enclosing text within double quote also. But escape sequences and variables will be interpreted using double quote PHP strings.

Example

  1. <?php  
  2. $str1="Using double "quote" directly inside double quoted string";  
  3. echo $str1;  
  4. ?>