What does (int) $_GET['page'] mean in PHP?

Question

I tried looking up (int) but could only find documentation for the function int() in the PHP manual.

Could someone explain to me what the above code does, and exactly how it works?

Answer 1

You can find it in the manual in the section type juggling: type casting. (int) casts a value to int and is a language construct, which is the reason that it looks "funny".

Answer 2

It convert (tries at least) whatever the value of the variable is to a integer. If there are any letter etc, in front it will convert to a 0.

<?php

$var = '1a';

echo $var;               // 1a
echo (int) $var;     //1

$var2 = 'a2';
echo $var2;           //a2
echo (int) $var2;     // 0

?>

Answer 3

(int) converts a value to an integer.

<?php
$test = "1";
echo gettype((int)$test);
?>

$ php test.php
integer

Answer 4

Simple example will make you understand:

var_dump((int)8);
var_dump((int)"8");
var_dump((int)"6a6");

var_dump((int)"a6");

var_dump((int)8.9);
var_dump((int)"8.9");
var_dump((int)"6.4a6");

Result:

int(8)
int(8)
int(6)

int(0)

int(8)
int(8)
int(6)