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gettype

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

gettype — Get the type of a variable

Description

gettype ( mixed $var ) : string

Returns the type of the PHP variable var. For type checking, use is_* functions.

Parameters

var

The variable being type checked.

Return Values

Possible 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"
  • "resource (closed)" as of PHP 7.2.0
  • "NULL"
  • "unknown type"

Examples

Example #1 gettype() example

<?php

$data = array(1, 1., NULL, new stdClass, 'foo');

foreach ($data as $value) {
    echo gettype($value), "\n";
}

?>

The above example will output something similar to:

integer
double
NULL
object
string

Changelog

Version Description
7.2.0 Closed resources are now reported as 'resource (closed)'. Previously the returned value for closed resources were 'unknown type'.

See Also

  • settype() - Set the type of a variable
  • get_class() - Returns the name of the class of an object
  • is_array() - Finds whether a variable is an array
  • is_bool() - Finds out whether a variable is a boolean
  • is_callable() - Verify that the contents of a variable can be called as a function
  • is_float() - Finds whether the type of a variable is float
  • is_int() - Find whether the type of a variable is integer
  • is_null() - Finds whether a variable is null
  • is_numeric() - Finds whether a variable is a number or a numeric string
  • is_object() - Finds whether a variable is an object
  • is_resource() - Finds whether a variable is a resource
  • is_scalar() - Finds whether a variable is a scalar
  • is_string() - Find whether the type of a variable is string
  • function_exists() - Return true if the given function has been defined
  • method_exists() - Checks if the class method exists

© 1997–2020 The PHP Documentation Group
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License v3.0 or later.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.gettype.php