PHP float with 2 decimal places: .00

Question

When I do this typecasting:

(float) \'0.00\';

I get 0. How do I get 0.00 and still have the data type as a float?

Answer 1

As far as i know there is no solution for PHP to fix this. All other (above and below) answers given in this thread are nonsense.

The number_format function returns a string as result as written in PHP.net's own specification.

Functions like floatval/doubleval do return integers if you give as value 3.00 .

If you do typejuggling then you will get an integer as result.

If you use round() then you will get an integer as result.

The only possible solution that i can think of is using your database for type conversion to float. MySQL for example:

SELECT CAST('3.00' AS DECIMAL) AS realFloatValue;

Execute this using an abstraction layer which returns floats instead of strings and there you go.

JSON output modification

If you are looking for a solution to fix your JSON output to hold 2 decimals then you can probably use post-formatting like in the code below:

// PHP AJAX Controller

// some code here

// transform to json and then convert string to float with 2 decimals
$output = array('x' => 'y', 'price' => '0.00');
$json = json_encode($output);
$json = str_replace('"price":"'.$output['price'].'"', '"price":'.$output['price'].'', $json);

// output to browser / client
print $json;
exit();

Returns to client/browser:

{"x":"y","price":0.00}