How do the PHP equality (== double equals) and ide

Question

What is the difference between == and ===?

• How exactly does the loosely == comparison work?
• How exactly does the strict === comparison work?

What would be some useful examples?

Answer 1

In regards to JavaScript:

The === operator works the same as the == operator, but it requires that its operands have not only the same value, but also the same data type.

For example, the sample below will display 'x and y are equal', but not 'x and y are identical'.

var x = 4;
var y = '4';
if (x == y) {
    alert('x and y are equal');
}
if (x === y) {
    alert('x and y are identical');
}

Answer 2

It's all about data types. Take a BOOL (true or false) for example:

true also equals 1 and false also equals 0

The == does not care about the data types when comparing: So if you had a variable that is 1 (which could also be true):

$var=1;

And then compare with the ==:

if ($var == true)
{
    echo"var is true";
}

But $var does not actually equal true, does it? It has the int value of 1 instead, which in turn, is equal to true.

With ===, the data types are checked to make sure the two variables/objects/whatever are using the same type.

So if I did

if ($var === true)
{
    echo "var is true";
}

that condition would not be true, as $var !== true it only == true (if you know what I mean).

Why would you need this?

Simple - let's take a look at one of PHP's functions: array_search():

The array_search() function simply searches for a value in an array, and returns the key of the element the value was found in. If the value could not be found in the array, it returns false. But, what if you did an array_search() on a value that was stored in the first element of the array (which would have the array key of 0)....the array_search() function would return 0...which is equal to false..

So if you did:

$arr = array("name");
if (array_search("name", $arr) == false)
{
    // This would return 0 (the key of the element the val was found
    // in), but because we're using ==, we'll think the function
    // actually returned false...when it didn't.
}

So, do you see how this could be an issue now?

Most people don't use == false when checking if a function returns false. Instead, they use the !. But actually, this is exactly the same as using ==false, so if you did:

$arr = array("name");
if (!array_search("name", $arr)) // This is the same as doing (array_search("name", $arr) == false)

So for things like that, you would use the === instead, so that the data type is checked.

Answer 3

<?php

    /**
     * Comparison of two PHP objects                         ==     ===
     * Checks for
     * 1. References                                         yes    yes
     * 2. Instances with matching attributes and its values  yes    no
     * 3. Instances with different attributes                yes    no
     **/

    // There is no need to worry about comparing visibility of property or
    // method, because it will be the same whenever an object instance is
    // created, however visibility of an object can be modified during run
    // time using ReflectionClass()
    // http://php.net/manual/en/reflectionproperty.setaccessible.php
    //
    class Foo
    {
        public $foobar = 1;

        public function createNewProperty($name, $value)
        {
            $this->{$name} = $value;
        }
    }

    class Bar
    {
    }
    // 1. Object handles or references
    // Is an object a reference to itself or a clone or totally a different object?
    //
    //   ==  true   Name of two objects are same, for example, Foo() and Foo()
    //   ==  false  Name of two objects are different, for example, Foo() and Bar()
    //   === true   ID of two objects are same, for example, 1 and 1
    //   === false  ID of two objects are different, for example, 1 and 2

    echo "1. Object handles or references (both == and    ===) <br />";

    $bar = new Foo();    // New object Foo() created
    $bar2 = new Foo();   // New object Foo() created
    $baz = clone $bar;   // Object Foo() cloned
    $qux = $bar;         // Object Foo() referenced
    $norf = new Bar();   // New object Bar() created
    echo "bar";
    var_dump($bar);
    echo "baz";
    var_dump($baz);
    echo "qux";
    var_dump($qux);
    echo "bar2";
    var_dump($bar2);
    echo "norf";
    var_dump($norf);

    // Clone: == true and === false
    echo '$bar == $bar2';
    var_dump($bar == $bar2); // true

    echo '$bar === $bar2';
    var_dump($bar === $bar2); // false

    echo '$bar == $baz';
    var_dump($bar == $baz); // true

    echo '$bar === $baz';
    var_dump($bar === $baz); // false

    // Object reference: == true and === true
    echo '$bar == $qux';
    var_dump($bar == $qux); // true

    echo '$bar === $qux';
    var_dump($bar === $qux); // true

    // Two different objects: == false and === false
    echo '$bar == $norf';
    var_dump($bar == $norf); // false

    echo '$bar === $norf';
    var_dump($bar === $norf); // false

    // 2. Instances with matching attributes and its values (only ==).
    //    What happens when objects (even in cloned object) have same
    //    attributes but varying values?

    // $foobar value is different
    echo "2. Instances with matching attributes  and its values (only ==) <br />";

    $baz->foobar = 2;
    echo '$foobar' . " value is different <br />";
    echo '$bar->foobar = ' . $bar->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$baz->foobar = ' . $baz->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$bar == $baz';
    var_dump($bar == $baz); // false

    // $foobar's value is the same again
    $baz->foobar = 1;
    echo '$foobar' . " value is the same again <br />";
    echo '$bar->foobar is ' . $bar->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$baz->foobar is ' . $baz->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$bar == $baz';
    var_dump($bar == $baz); // true

    // Changing values of properties in $qux object will change the property
    // value of $bar and evaluates true always, because $qux = &$bar.
    $qux->foobar = 2;
    echo '$foobar value of both $qux and $bar is 2, because $qux = &$bar' . "<br />";
    echo '$qux->foobar is ' . $qux->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$bar->foobar is ' . $bar->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$bar == $qux';
    var_dump($bar == $qux); // true

    // 3. Instances with different attributes (only ==)
    //    What happens when objects have different attributes even though
    //    one of the attributes has same value?
    echo "3. Instances with different attributes (only ==) <br />";

    // Dynamically create a property with the name in $name and value
    // in $value for baz object
    $name = 'newproperty';
    $value = null;
    $baz->createNewProperty($name, $value);
    echo '$baz->newproperty is ' . $baz->{$name};
    var_dump($baz);

    $baz->foobar = 2;
    echo '$foobar' . " value is same again <br />";
    echo '$bar->foobar is ' . $bar->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$baz->foobar is ' . $baz->foobar . "<br />";
    echo '$bar == $baz';
    var_dump($bar == $baz); // false
    var_dump($bar);
    var_dump($baz);
?>

Answer 4

$a = 5;   // 5 as an integer

var_dump($a == 5);       // compare value; return true
var_dump($a == '5');     // compare value (ignore type); return true
var_dump($a === 5);      // compare type/value (integer vs. integer); return true
var_dump($a === '5');    // compare type/value (integer vs. string); return false

Be careful though. Here is a notorious problem.

// 'test' is found at position 0, which is interpreted as the boolean 'false'
if (strpos('testing', 'test')) {
    // code...
}

vs.

// true, as strict comparison was made (0 !== false)
if (strpos('testing', 'test') !== false) {
    // code...
}

Answer 5

There are two differences between == and === in PHP arrays and objects that I think didn't mention here; two arrays with different key sorts, and objects.

Two arrays with different key sorts

If you have an array with a key sort and another array with a different key sort, they are strictly different (i.e. using ===). That may cause if you key-sort an array, and try to compare the sorted array with the original one.

For instance, consider an empty array. First, we try to push some new indexes to the array without any special sort. A good example would be an array with strings as keys. Now deep into an example:

// Define an array
$arr = [];

// Adding unsorted keys
$arr["I"] = "we";
$arr["you"] = "you";
$arr["he"] = "they";

Now, we have a not-sorted-keys array (e.g., 'he' came after 'you'). Consider the same array, but we sorted its keys alphabetically:

// Declare array
$alphabetArr = [];

// Adding alphabetical-sorted keys
$alphabetArr["I"] = "we";
$alphabetArr["he"] = "they";
$alphabetArr["you"] = "you";

Tip: You can sort an array by key using ksort() function.

Now you have another array with a different key sort from the first one. So, we're going to compare them:

$arr == $alphabetArr; // true
$arr === $alphabetArr; // false

Note: It may be obvious, but comparing two different arrays using strict comparison always results false. However, two arbitrary arrays may be equal using === or not.

You would say: "This difference is negligible". Then I say it's a difference and should be considered and may happen anytime. As mentioned above, sorting keys in an array is a good example of that.

Objects

Keep in mind, two different objects are never strict-equal. These examples would help:

$stdClass1 = new stdClass();
$stdClass2 = new stdClass();
$clonedStdClass1 = clone $stdClass1;

// Comparing
$stdClass1 == $stdClass2; // true
$stdClass1 === $stdClass2; // false
$stdClass1 == $clonedStdClass1; // true
$stdClass1 === $clonedStdClass1; // false

Note: Assigning an object to another variable does not create a copy - rather, it creates a reference to the same memory location as the object. See here.

Note: As of PHP7, anonymous classes was added. From the results, there is no difference between new class {} and new stdClass() in the tests above.

Answer 6

Variables have a type and a value.

• $var = "test" is a string that contain "test"
• $var2 = 24 is an integer vhose value is 24.

When you use these variables (in PHP), sometimes you don't have the good type. For example, if you do

if ($var == 1) {... do something ...}

PHP have to convert ("to cast") $var to integer. In this case, "$var == 1" is true because any non-empty string is casted to 1.

When using ===, you check that the value AND THE TYPE are equal, so "$var === 1" is false.

This is useful, for example, when you have a function that can return false (on error) and 0 (result) :

if(myFunction() == false) { ... error on myFunction ... }

This code is wrong as if myFunction() returns 0, it is casted to false and you seem to have an error. The correct code is :

if(myFunction() === false) { ... error on myFunction ... }

because the test is that the return value "is a boolean and is false" and not "can be casted to false".