gettype

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

gettype — Get the type of a variable

Description

string gettype ( mixed $var )

Returns the type of the PHP variable var .

Warning

Never use gettype() to test for a certain type, since the returned string may be subject to change in a future version. In addition, it is slow too, as it involves string comparison.

Instead, use the is_* functions.

Parameters

var

The variable being type checked.

Return Values

Possibles values for the returned string are:

• "boolean"
• "integer"
• "double" (for historical reasons "double" is returned in case of a float, and not simply "float")
• "string"
• "array"
• "object"
• "resource"
• "NULL"
• "unknown type"

See Also

• settype()
• is_array()
• is_bool()
• is_float()
• is_int()
• is_null()
• is_numeric()
• is_object()
• is_resource()
• is_scalar()
• is_string()
• function_exists()
• method_exists()