gettype

Get the type of a variable

Description

string gettype(mixed $value)

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

Parameters

value

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"

Changelog

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

See Also

  • get_debug_type
  • settype
  • get_class
  • is_array
  • is_bool
  • is_callable
  • is_float
  • is_int
  • is_null
  • is_numeric
  • is_object
  • is_resource
  • is_scalar
  • is_string
  • function_exists
  • method_exists