PHP is_numeric or preg_match 0-9 validation

Question

This isn\'t a big issue for me (as far as I\'m aware), it\'s more of something that\'s interested me. But what is the main difference, if any, of using is_numeric

Answer 1

Not exactly the same.

From the PHP docs of is_numeric:

'42' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'1e4' is numeric
'not numeric' is NOT numeric
'Array' is NOT numeric
'9.1' is numeric

With your regex you only check for 'basic' numeric values.

Also is_numeric() should be faster.