Can PHP arrays hold items of different type

Question

The definition of an array in other programming languages is a container for similar-type elements. In PHP, a single array appears to be holding both strings and numbers together, despite the fact that if I declare something like int i[] it will store integers.

Will a PHP array of this type treat numbers and integers as strings?

Answer 1

You can store heterogeneous types inside a PHP "array," according to the PHP documentation. Scroll down to example 3.

Although the example is about keys having int or string values, it also shows that heterogeneous types can be stored because the values assigned in the example are both ints and strings.

Be aware that automatic casting occurs when using different-typed keys, which could lead to unexpected outcomes if, for example, a string contains a valid decimal representation.