How to get an integer from MySQL as integer in PHP?

Question

When data is returned from MySQL, it is automatically returned as strings, regardless of the MySQL data type.

Is there any way to tell MySQL/PHP to maintain the data

Answer 1

I don't know in what context you asked this question. Because the data type of a php variable is dependent on what data type a column in your table has. If the column has data type "int" in mysql, you get an integer in php (not a string).

But anyways, you can use either is_numeric(), is_int() or gettype() php functions to know the data type of a returned value from Mysql. The problem with is_numeric() is that it returns true even if a variable contains a numeric string e.g. "2". But gettype() will return "string" and is_int() will always return false in the example mentioned i.e. "2".

Once you know the data type of a returned value you can bind the php variable to maintain that type by type casting like this:

// Suppose this is the returned value from mysql and
// you do not know its data type.
$foo = "2";

if (gettype($foo) == "string"){
    $foo = (string) $foo;
}

You can make several checks for what data type the variable has and then cast it accordingly.

I hope this reply would be helpful. Good luck! :)