Fastest way to convert string to integer in PHP

Question

Using PHP, what's the fastest way to convert a string like this: "123" to an integer?

Why is that particular method the fastest? What happens if it gets unexpected input, such as "hello" or an array?

Answer 1

Please don't worry about "fastest" without having first done some sort of measurement that it matters.

Rather than worrying about fastest, think about which way is clearest.

Answer 2

I've just set up a quick benchmarking exercise:

Function             time to run 1 million iterations
--------------------------------------------
(int) "123":                0.55029
intval("123"):              1.0115  (183%)

(int) "0":                  0.42461
intval("0"):                0.95683 (225%)

(int) int:                  0.1502
intval(int):                0.65716 (438%)

(int) array("a", "b"):      0.91264
intval(array("a", "b")):    1.47681 (162%)

(int) "hello":              0.42208
intval("hello"):            0.93678 (222%)

On average, calling intval() is two and a half times slower, and the difference is the greatest if your input already is an integer.

I'd be interested to know why though.

---

Update: I've run the tests again, this time with coercion (0 + $var)

| INPUT ($x)      |  (int) $x  |intval($x) |  0 + $x   |
|-----------------|------------|-----------|-----------|
| "123"           |   0.51541  |  0.96924  |  0.33828  |
| "0"             |   0.42723  |  0.97418  |  0.31353  |
| 123             |   0.15011  |  0.61690  |  0.15452  |
| array("a", "b") |   0.8893   |  1.45109  |  err!     |
| "hello"         |   0.42618  |  0.88803  |  0.1691   |
|-----------------|------------|-----------|-----------|

Addendum: I've just come across a slightly unexpected behaviour which you should be aware of when choosing one of these methods:

$x = "11";
(int) $x;      // int(11)
intval($x);    // int(11)
$x + 0;        // int(11)

$x = "0x11";
(int) $x;      // int(0)
intval($x);    // int(0)
$x + 0;        // int(17) !

$x = "011";
(int) $x;      // int(11)
intval($x);    // int(11)
$x + 0;        // int(11) (not 9)

_{Tested using PHP 5.3.1}

Answer 3

Run a test.

   string coerce:          7.42296099663
   string cast:            8.05654597282
   string fail coerce:     7.14159703255
   string fail cast:       7.87444186211

This was a test that ran each scenario 10,000,000 times. :-)

Co-ercion is 0 + "123"

Casting is (integer)"123"

I think Co-ercion is a tiny bit faster. Oh, and trying 0 + array('123') is a fatal error in PHP. You might want your code to check the type of the supplied value.

My test code is below.

---

function test_string_coerce($s) {
    return 0 + $s;
}

function test_string_cast($s) {
    return (integer)$s;
}

$iter = 10000000;

print "-- running each text $iter times.\n";

// string co-erce
$string_coerce = new Timer;
$string_coerce->Start();

print "String Coerce test\n";
for( $i = 0; $i < $iter ; $i++ ) {
    test_string_coerce('123');
}

$string_coerce->Stop();

// string cast
$string_cast = new Timer;
$string_cast->Start();

print "String Cast test\n";
for( $i = 0; $i < $iter ; $i++ ) {
    test_string_cast('123');
}

$string_cast->Stop();

// string co-erce fail.
$string_coerce_fail = new Timer;
$string_coerce_fail->Start();

print "String Coerce fail test\n";
for( $i = 0; $i < $iter ; $i++ ) {
    test_string_coerce('hello');
}

$string_coerce_fail->Stop();

// string cast fail
$string_cast_fail = new Timer;
$string_cast_fail->Start();

print "String Cast fail test\n";
for( $i = 0; $i < $iter ; $i++ ) {
    test_string_cast('hello');
}

$string_cast_fail->Stop();

// -----------------
print "\n";
print "string coerce:          ".$string_coerce->Elapsed()."\n";
print "string cast:            ".$string_cast->Elapsed()."\n";
print "string fail coerce:     ".$string_coerce_fail->Elapsed()."\n";
print "string fail cast:       ".$string_cast_fail->Elapsed()."\n";


class Timer {
    var $ticking = null;
    var $started_at = false;
    var $elapsed = 0;

    function Timer() {
        $this->ticking = null;
    }

    function Start() {
        $this->ticking = true;
        $this->started_at = microtime(TRUE);
    }

    function Stop() {
        if( $this->ticking )
            $this->elapsed = microtime(TRUE) - $this->started_at;
        $this->ticking = false;
    }

    function Elapsed() {
        switch( $this->ticking ) {
            case true: return "Still Running";
            case false: return $this->elapsed;
            case null: return "Not Started";
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

I personally feel casting is the prettiest.

$iSomeVar = (int) $sSomeOtherVar;

Should a string like 'Hello' be sent, it will be cast to integer 0. For a string such as '22 years old', it will be cast to integer 22. Anything it can't parse to a number becomes 0.

If you really do NEED the speed, I guess the other suggestions here are correct in assuming that coercion is the fastest.