identity-operator

Why is === faster than == in PHP? Because the equality operator == coerces, or converts the data type temporarily to see if it's equal to the other operand whereas === ( identity operator ) doesn't need to do any converting whatsoever and thus less work is done, making it faster. === does not perform typecasting, so 0 == '0' evaluates to true , but 0 === '0' - to false . First, === checks to see if the two arguments are the same type - so the number 1 and the string '1' fails on the type check before any comparisons are actually carried out. On the other hand, == doesn't check the type first

I've noticed someone using the PHP operator === which I can't make sense out of. I've tried it with a function, and it corresponds in crazy ways. What is the definition of this operator? I can't even find it in the declaration of PHP operators. Tim Sylvester $a === $b (Identical) TRUE if $a is equal to $b , and they are of the same type. (introduced in PHP 4) PHP Docs Dykam http://www.php.net/ternary $a == $b Equal TRUE if $a is equal to $b, except for (True == -1) which is still True. $a === $b Identical TRUE if $a is equal to $b, and they are of the same type. > "5" == 5; True > "5" === 5;