<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Get the type of a variable</title>
</head>
<body><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.get-resource-type.html">get_resource_type</a></div>
<div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.import-request-variables.html">import_request_variables</a></div>
<div class="up"><a href="ref.var.html">Variable handling Functions</a></div>
<div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div>
</div><hr /><div id="function.gettype" class="refentry">
<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">gettype</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">gettype</span> — <span class="dc-title">Get the type of a variable</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.gettype-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>gettype</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type"><a href="language.pseudo-types.html#language.types.mixed" class="type mixed">mixed</a></span> <code class="parameter">$var</code></span>
)</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Returns the type of the PHP variable <em><code class="parameter">var</code></em>. For
type checking, use <em>is_*</em> functions.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.gettype-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">var</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The variable being type checked.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.gettype-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Possible values for the returned string are:
<ul class="itemizedlist">
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.boolean.html" class="type boolean">boolean</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.integer.html" class="type integer">integer</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.float.html" class="type double">double</a></span>" (for historical reasons "double" is
returned in case of a <span class="type"><a href="language.types.float.html" class="type float">float</a></span>, and not simply
"float")
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.string.html" class="type string">string</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.array.html" class="type array">array</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.object.html" class="type object">object</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.resource.html" class="type resource">resource</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"<span class="type"><a href="language.types.null.html" class="type NULL">NULL</a></span>"
</span>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
<span class="simpara">
"unknown type"
</span>
</li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.gettype-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-5253">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>gettype()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /><br />$data </span><span style="color: #007700">= array(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">1.</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">NULL</span><span style="color: #007700">, new </span><span style="color: #0000BB">stdClass</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'foo'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br />foreach (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$data </span><span style="color: #007700">as </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$value</span><span style="color: #007700">) {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">gettype</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$value</span><span style="color: #007700">), </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>The above example will output
something similar to:</p></div>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
integer
double
NULL
object
string
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.gettype-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.settype.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">settype()</a> - Set the type of a variable</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.get-class.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">get_class()</a> - Returns the name of the class of an object</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-array.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_array()</a> - Finds whether a variable is an array</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-bool.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_bool()</a> - Finds out whether a variable is a boolean</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-float.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_float()</a> - Finds whether the type of a variable is float</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-int.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_int()</a> - Find whether the type of a variable is integer</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-null.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_null()</a> - Finds whether a variable is NULL</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-numeric.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_numeric()</a> - Finds whether a variable is a number or a numeric string</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-object.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_object()</a> - Finds whether a variable is an object</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-resource.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_resource()</a> - Finds whether a variable is a resource</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-scalar.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_scalar()</a> - Finds whether a variable is a scalar</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-string.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_string()</a> - Find whether the type of a variable is string</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.function-exists.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">function_exists()</a> - Return TRUE if the given function has been defined</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.method-exists.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">method_exists()</a> - Checks if the class method exists</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
</div><hr /><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;">
<div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.get-resource-type.html">get_resource_type</a></div>
<div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.import-request-variables.html">import_request_variables</a></div>
<div class="up"><a href="ref.var.html">Variable handling Functions</a></div>
<div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div>
</div></body></html>
