PHP  
downloads | documentation | faq | getting help | mailing lists | | php.net sites | links 
search for in the  
previousExpressiesArithmetic Operatorsnext
Last updated: Tue, 24 Sep 2002
view the printer friendly version or the printer friendly version with notes or change language to English | Brazilian Portuguese | Chinese | Czech | Finnish | French | German | Hungarian | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Slovak | Spanish | Swedish | Turkish

Hoofdstuk 11. Operators

Operator Precedence

The precedence of an operator specifies how "tightly" it binds two expressions together. For example, in the expression 1 + 5 * 3, the answer is 16 and not 18 because the multiplication ("*") operator has a higher precedence than the addition ("+") operator. Parentheses may be used to force precedence, if necessary. For instance: (1 + 5) * 3 evaluates to 18.

The following table lists the precedence of operators with the lowest-precedence operators listed first.

Tabel 11-1. Operator Precedence

AssociativityOperators
left,
leftor
leftxor
leftand
rightprint
left = += -= *= /= .= %= &= |= ^= ~= <<= >>=
left? :
left||
left&&
left|
left^
left&
non-associative== != === !==
non-associative< <= > >=
left<< >>
left+ - .
left* / %
right! ~ ++ -- (int) (float) (string) (array) (object) @
right[
non-associativenew

User Contributed Notes
Operators
add a note about notes
stanis at sibfair dot nsk dot su
28-Mar-2000 07:47

In case you are just beginning to code in PHP and this is your first experience in programming, the Modulus (%) is a great way to code photo albums based on a table (it returns the remainder of integer divided by integer). The modulus helps to wrap data to next row based on the result of '$currentrow(from db)' % 'number of columns in database'. The only thing to look out for is that 1 % 4 is 1, 2 % 4 is 2, etc. and not zero or some other number, like you might think at first. Hope this will help some newbie programmers like myself.
kennon at audiogalaxy dot com
15-Aug-2000 01:41

You can also use the floor() and ceil() functions to give the nearest integer values of a double. So, for instance, to get the integer part of the quotient, you can do this:

floor( $a / $b );

kees at tweakers dot net
04-Jan-2001 02:54

Normally, a negative value modulo a positive number generates a negaive number, if you don't want that (for example, the number has to be between 0 and 9 and not negative) then you can use a function like this:
function mod($a,$b)
{
if ($a <= 0) return (int) mod($b-abs($a), $b); else return (int) $a % $b;
}
for example:
-2 % 10 = -2
but mod(-2, 10) will return 8.

bdiaz at aullox dot com
25-Jan-2001 02:57

Yet another IWBNI posting...
I used the caret ( ^ ) "operator" in a truncate() function of mine with a result similar to a substraction. So, I had to implement an even weirder function which would work better. Should anyone know of a better way to do this, I thank in advance.

//The function expects a double $num and an int $pos indicating the decimal
//positions to allow

function truncate($num,$pos){
$pos=(int)$pos;
$m="1e$pos"; //this is our divider, ten at $pos power
$t=(double)$num*(double)$m; //just to be sure
$t=(int)$t; //yes, we need to cut superfluous decimals
$t=(double)$t/(double)$m;
return $t;
}

yasuo_ohgaki at hotmail dot com
09-Mar-2001 08:38

There are some operator descriptions missing. (I'm not sure what is considered as operator in PHP, but anyway)

::
Scope resolution operator for class

->
Member selection operator for class

new
Object creation operator

?:
It is described in Comparison Operator Section. I think it worth to make a new sub section for ternary operator.

[]
I think Array "[]" is considered as operator. It mentioned in Operator Precedence Section as [, but no description. (Or is there any other use for single "["?)

()
Grouping expressions. It might not considered as operator in PHP, but it is better to be included at least in Operator Precedence section.

{}
Resolve ambiguous reference to variables. For example, {} is needed to resolve $array1['array_stored_as_array_element']['value']. {} is also needed to resolve ambiguity such as echo " $array_3d[1][2][3] "
It might not considered as operator in PHP, but it is better to be included at least in Operator Precedence section.

&
Reference operator. There is a section for reference, but it is better to be explained briefly in this section and direct reader to Reference section.

(type)
Cast operator like (int)$v to get integer value. I suppose these are operators also. Mentioned in Precedence section, but no description.

+= -= *= /= .= %= &= |= ^= ~= <<= >>=
Some assignment operators that are supported are not described. Mentioned in Precedence section, though.

print
Looks like "print" is considered as operator in PHP. (I thought "echo" is) It mentioned in Precedence section, but no description. Description for these may be helpful for programmers to distinguish what is "expression" and what is not.

For some reason, PHP4.0.4pl1 dose not allow. (I posted as bug, I got reply "echo" is not a valid expression. Therefore, PHP complained for following code as a parse error)

($val) ? echo('true') : echo('false');

but PHP does ALLOW

($val) ? print('true') : print('false');
($val) ? include('true.inc') : include('false.inc');

I'm confused with these. i.e. What is a expression, what is not an expression.

If there are other operators like "print" (maybe echo?), all of them should be described or mentioned, at least, in this section. (I think it would be nice to have a section describing what is statements/language construct)

It is not about operator, but it would be nice to have BNF of PHP (Zend Script Engine) as a reference.

yasuo_ohgaki at hotmail dot com
09-Mar-2001 10:25

For type casting is described at



(I suppose cast is operator, isn't it?)

jeroen at php dot net
31-Jul-2001 09:38

There is no power-operator. Use pow() instead.

See:


There might come a power-operator in a future release, but that is still being discussed

mahmoud.at.infoscience.it
12-Dec-2001 04:24

You can use the shorthand:

$a = 5;
$a += 10; // $a is now 15
$a -= 3; // $a is now 12

php.at.michrev.com
08-Mar-2002 09:42

If this doesn't work:
($val) ? echo('true') : echo('false');
...you should use this:
if($val) { echo('true'); } else { echo('false'); }
...or, better yet, this:
echo($val ? 'true' : 'false');
...because $val, 'true', and 'false' are all expressions, but echo() is not.

The "expr?expr:expr" operator is used to select between expressions in the middle of a command. If you need to select between different commands instead, it's probably better to use if() instead. That's what it's there for.

ronm1958 at adelphia dot net
15-Apr-2002 04:59

The PHP modulus function will (interestingly) not return the decimal portion of the result. I wrote a little function that will do so, and mimics the results obtained by using the Windows calculator mod function:

function modphp($x, $y, $z) {

for ($y = 0; $y <= abs($z); $y++) {
$w = abs($z) - (abs($x) * $y);
if ($w < abs($x)) {
break;
}
}

if ($z < 0) {
return(-$w);
} else {
return($w);
}

}

Here's how to pull the answer out of the mod function above:

$answer = modphp($var_x, $var_y, $var_z);

msopacua at idg dot nl
09-Jun-2002 12:56

Remember that when you're reading from a socket, all output is of type string.

Use ord() on each 'character', to get the byte values and use bitwise arithmetics.

18-Jun-2002 11:21
The =& operator can be found in section 14 -- returning references.
zontar at mindless dot com
04-Aug-2002 11:53

It appears that the shortcut logical operators &&= and ||= are not supported. Drag. :(
28-Aug-2002 09:43
It should be noted that PHP's ?: operator associates left to right. In C and in C++, the ?: operator associates right to left. Thus:

1 ? 2 : 3 ? 4 : 5;

has the value 4 in PHP and the value 2 in C and in C++. I find it curious that they would reverse the associativity of an operator from its "accepted" sense, but yet they didn't fix the precedence of the bitwise operators. Thus:

if(A & 7 == 5)

groups like:

if(A & (7 == 5))

It is a trap for the unlucky.

add a note about notes
previousExpressiesArithmetic Operatorsnext
Last updated: Tue, 24 Sep 2002
show source | credits | stats | mirror sites
Copyright © 2001, 2002 The PHP Group
All rights reserved.
This mirror generously provided by:
Last updated: Tue Oct 1 06:16:38 2002 CEST