What do strict types do in PHP?

Question

I\'ve seen the following new line in PHP 7, but nobody really explains what it means. I\'ve googled it and all they talk about is will you be enabling it or not like a poll

Answer 1

From the Treehouse blog:

With PHP 7 we now have added Scalar types. Specifically: int, float, string, and bool.

By adding scalar type hints and enabling strict requirements, it is hoped that more correct and self-documenting PHP programs can be written. It also gives you more control over your code and can make the code easier to read.

By default, scalar type-declarations are non-strict, which means they will attempt to change the original type to match the type specified by the type-declaration. In other words, if you pass a string that starts with a number into a function that requires a float, it will grab the number from the beginning and remove everything else. Passing a float into a function that requires an int will become int(1).

By default, PHP will cast values of the wrong type into the expected scalar type if possible. For example, a function that is given an integer for a parameter that expects a string will get a variable of type string.

Strict types disabled (eval):

It is possible to enable strict mode on a per-file basis. In strict mode, only a variable of exact type of the type declaration will be accepted, or a TypeError will be thrown. The only exception to this rule is that an integer may be given to a function expecting a float. Function calls from within internal functions will not be affected by the strict_types declaration.

To enable strict mode, the declare statement is used with the strict_types declaration:

Strict types enabled (eval):

Working example:

 'azjezz','age' => 100]); // returns an stdClass

function StdClassToArray(stdClass $object): array
{
    return (array) $object;
}

$array = StdClassToArray($object); // Returns array

function ArrayToObject(array $array): object // As of PHP 7.2
{
    return new ArrayObject($array);
}

function ObjectToArray(ArrayObject $object): array
{
    return $object->getArrayCopy();
}

var_dump( ObjectToArray( ArrayToObject( [1 => 'a' ] ) ) ); // array(1 => 'a');