Hey fellow developers,
I have a question regarding using operators to perform calculations or comparisons on numeric strings in PHP. I'm working on a project where I need to deal with numeric strings and apply various operations on them. However, I'm not sure about the best approach to accomplish this.
Let me provide you with some context. I'm building a web application that involves handling user input in the form of numeric strings. These strings are obtained from user-generated data, such as measurements or monetary values. I need to manipulate these strings to perform calculations and comparisons based on certain conditions.
For example, I might need to add two numeric strings together, compare them to see which one is bigger, or perform multiplication or division operations on them.
I understand that PHP provides various operators that can be used for arithmetic calculations, such as +, -, *, and /. However, I'm not entirely sure if these operators can be directly applied to numeric strings, or if I need to convert them to actual numeric values first.
Can anyone shed some light on the best way to approach this? Should I convert the numeric strings to integers or floats using a built-in PHP function before performing any calculations or comparisons? Or can I directly use the operators on the numeric strings without any conversion?
Any insights or code examples would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!
