Here are some tricks to convert from a "dotted" IP address to a LONG int, and backwards. This is very useful because accessing an IP addy in a database table is very much faster if it's stored as a BIGINT rather than in characters.
IP to BIGINT:
<?php
$ipArr = explode('.',$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$ip = $ipArr[0] * 0x1000000
+ $ipArr[1] * 0x10000
+ $ipArr[2] * 0x100
+ $ipArr[3]
;
?>
IP as BIGINT read from db back to dotted form:
Keep in mind, PHP integer operators are INTEGER -- not long. Also, since there is no integer divide in PHP, we save a couple of S-L-O-W floor (<division>)'s by doing bitshifts. We must use floor(/) for $ipArr[0] because though $ipVal is stored as a long value, $ipVal >> 24 will operate on a truncated, integer value of $ipVal! $ipVint is, however, a nice integer, so
we can enjoy the bitshifts.
<?php
$ipVal = $row['client_IP'];
$ipArr = array(0 =>
floor( $ipVal / 0x1000000) );
$ipVint = $ipVal-($ipArr[0]*0x1000000); // for clarity
$ipArr[1] = ($ipVint & 0xFF0000) >> 16;
$ipArr[2] = ($ipVint & 0xFF00 ) >> 8;
$ipArr[3] = $ipVint & 0xFF;
$ipDotted = implode('.', $ipArr);
?>
Integers
An integer is a number of the set ℤ = {..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ...}.
See also:
Syntax
Integers can be specified in decimal (base 10), hexadecimal (base 16), octal (base 8) or binary (base 2) notation, optionally preceded by a sign (- or +).
Binary integer literals are available since PHP 5.4.0.
To use octal notation, precede the number with a 0 (zero). To use hexadecimal notation precede the number with 0x. To use binary notation precede the number with 0b.
Example #1 Integer literals
<?php
$a = 1234; // decimal number
$a = -123; // a negative number
$a = 0123; // octal number (equivalent to 83 decimal)
$a = 0x1A; // hexadecimal number (equivalent to 26 decimal)
?>
Formally, the structure for integer literals is:
decimal : [1-9][0-9]* | 0 hexadecimal : 0[xX][0-9a-fA-F]+ octal : 0[0-7]+ binary : 0b[01]+ integer : [+-]?decimal | [+-]?hexadecimal | [+-]?octal | [+-]?binary
The size of an integer is platform-dependent, although a maximum
value of about two billion is the usual value (that's 32 bits signed).
64-bit platforms usually have a maximum value of about 9E18. PHP
does not support unsigned integers. Integer size
can be determined using the constant PHP_INT_SIZE
, and
maximum value using the constant PHP_INT_MAX
since
PHP 4.4.0 and PHP 5.0.5.
If an invalid digit is given in an octal integer (i.e. 8 or 9), the rest of the number is ignored.
Example #2 Octal weirdness
<?php
var_dump(01090); // 010 octal = 8 decimal
?>
Integer overflow
If PHP encounters a number beyond the bounds of the integer type, it will be interpreted as a float instead. Also, an operation which results in a number beyond the bounds of the integer type will return a float instead.
Example #3 Integer overflow on a 32-bit system
<?php
$large_number = 2147483647;
var_dump($large_number); // int(2147483647)
$large_number = 2147483648;
var_dump($large_number); // float(2147483648)
$million = 1000000;
$large_number = 50000 * $million;
var_dump($large_number); // float(50000000000)
?>
Example #4 Integer overflow on a 64-bit system
<?php
$large_number = 9223372036854775807;
var_dump($large_number); // int(9223372036854775807)
$large_number = 9223372036854775808;
var_dump($large_number); // float(9.2233720368548E+18)
$million = 1000000;
$large_number = 50000000000000 * $million;
var_dump($large_number); // float(5.0E+19)
?>
There is no integer division operator in PHP. 1/2 yields the float 0.5. The value can be casted to an integer to round it downwards, or the round() function provides finer control over rounding.
<?php
var_dump(25/7); // float(3.5714285714286)
var_dump((int) (25/7)); // int(3)
var_dump(round(25/7)); // float(4)
?>
Converting to integer
To explicitly convert a value to integer, use either the (int) or (integer) casts. However, in most cases the cast is not needed, since a value will be automatically converted if an operator, function or control structure requires an integer argument. A value can also be converted to integer with the intval() function.
See also: type-juggling.
From booleans
FALSE
will yield 0 (zero), and TRUE
will yield
1 (one).
From floating point numbers
When converting from float to integer, the number will be rounded towards zero.
If the float is beyond the boundaries of integer (usually +/- 2.15e+9 = 2^31 on 32-bit platforms and +/- 9.22e+18 = 2^63 on 64-bit platforms), the result is undefined, since the float doesn't have enough precision to give an exact integer result. No warning, not even a notice will be issued when this happens!
Never cast an unknown fraction to integer, as this can sometimes lead to unexpected results.
<?php
echo (int) ( (0.1+0.7) * 10 ); // echoes 7!
?>
See also the warning about float precision.
From strings
From other types
The behaviour of converting to integer is undefined for other types. Do not rely on any observed behaviour, as it can change without notice.

"always round it downwards"
It seems to truncate, or round toward zero, rather than downward. If the float is negative, it is rounded up.
Be careful when using integer conversion to test something to see if it evaluates to a positive integer or not. You might get unexpected behaviour.
To wit:
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
require_once 'Date.php';
$date = new Date();
print "\$date is an instance of " . get_class($date) . "\n";
$date += 0;
print "\$date is now $date\n";
var_dump($date);
$foo = new foo();
print "\$foo is an instance of " . get_class($foo) . "\n";
$foo += 0;
print "\$foo is now $foo\n";
var_dump($foo);
class foo {
var $bar = 0;
var $baz = "la lal la";
var $bak;
function foo() {
$bak = 3.14159;
}
}
?>
After the integer conversion, you might expect both $foo and $date to evaluate to 0. However, this is not the case:
$date is an instance of Date
Notice: Object of class Date could not be converted to int in /home/kpeters/work/sketches/ObjectSketch.php on line 7
$date is now 1
int(1)
$foo is an instance of foo
Notice: Object of class foo could not be converted to int in /home/kpeters/work/sketches/ObjectSketch.php on line 13
$foo is now 1
int(1)
This is because the objects are first converted to boolean before being converted to int.
//This is a (simpler ?) function to return number of digits of an integer.
//function declaration
function count_digit($number) {
return strlen((string) $number);
}
//function call
$num = 12312;
$number_of_digits = count_digit($num); //this is call :)
echo $number_of_digits;
//prints 5
Be careful with using the modulo operation on big numbers, it will cast a float argument to an int and may return wrong results. For example:
<?php
$i = 6887129852;
echo "i=$i\n";
echo "i%36=".($i%36)."\n";
echo "alternative i%36=".($i-floor($i/36)*36)."\n";
?>
Will output:
i=6.88713E+009
i%36=-24
alternative i%36=20
PHP_INT_SIZE seems to be 8 when it is 64 bit integers... so 8 means the number of bytes, or number of 8-bits.
d_n at NOSPAM dot Loryx dot com
13-Aug-2007 05:33
Here are some tricks to convert from a "dotted" IP address to a LONG int, and backwards. This is very useful because accessing an IP addy in a database table is very much faster if it's stored as a BIGINT rather than in characters.
IP to BIGINT:
<?php
$ipArr = explode('.',$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$ip = $ipArr[0] * 0x1000000
+ $ipArr[1] * 0x10000
+ $ipArr[2] * 0x100
+ $ipArr[3]
;
?>
This can be written in a bit more efficient way:
<?php
$ipArr = explode('.',$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$ip = $ipArr[0]<<24
+ $ipArr[1]<<16
+ $ipArr[2] <<8
+ $ipArr[3]
;
?>
shift is more cheaper.
When doing large subtractions on 32 bit unsigned integers the result sometimes end up negative. My example script converts a IPv4 address represented as a 32 bit unsigned integer to a dotted quad (similar to ip2long()), and adds a "fix" to the operation.
/**************************
* int_oct($ip)
* Convert INTeger rep of IP to octal (dotted quad)
*/
function int_oct($ip) {
/* Set variable to float */
settype($ip, float);
/* FIX for silly PHP integer syndrome */
$fix = 0;
if($ip > 2147483647) $fix = 16777216;
if(is_numeric($ip)) {
return(sprintf("%u.%u.%u.%u",
$ip / 16777216,
(($ip % 16777216) + $fix) / 65536,
(($ip % 65536) + $fix / 256) / 256,
($ip % 256) + $fix / 256 / 256
)
);
}
else {
return('');
}
}
In response to the comment by me at troyswanson dot net:
-2147483648 falls into the range of 32 bit signed integers yet php treats it as a float. However, -2147483647-1 is treated as an integer.
The following code demonstrates:
<?php
var_dump(-2147483648); //float(-2147483648)
var_dump(-2147483647 - 1); //int(-2147483648)
?>
This is probably very similar to the MS C bug which also treats -2147483648 as an UNSIGNED because it thinks it's out of the range of a signed int.
The problem is that the parser does not view "-x" as a single token, but rather as two, "-" and "x". Since "x" is out of the range of an INT, it is promoted to float, even though in this unique case, "-x" is in the range of an int.
The best cure is probably to replace "-2147483648" with "0x80000000", as that is the hexadecimal equivalent of the same number.
Hope that helps explain what's going on
Peace
- Eric / fez
To force the correct usage of 32-bit unsigned integer in some functions, just add '+0' just before processing them.
for example
echo(dechex("2724838310"));
will print '7FFFFFFF'
but it should print 'A269BBA6'
When adding '+0' php will handle the 32bit unsigned integer
correctly
echo(dechex("2724838310"+0));
will print 'A269BBA6'
A leading zero in a numeric literal means "this is octal". But don't be confused: a leading zero in a string does not. Thus:
$x = 0123; // 83
$y = "0123" + 0 // 123
Please also note that the maximum stored in the integer depends on the platform / compilation; on windows xp 32 bits, the following value:
0x5468792130ABCDEF
echoes to:
6.0822444802213E+18 (cast to float)
On a fully 64 bits system, it echoes to:
6082244480221302255
Sometimes you need to parse an unsigned
32 bit integer. Here's a function I 've used:
function parse_unsigned_int($string) {
$x = (float)$string;
if ($x > (float)2147483647)
$x -= (float)"4294967296";
return (int)$x;
}
Try this one instead:
function iplongtostring($ip)
{
$ip=floatval($ip); // otherwise it is capped at 127.255.255.255
$a=($ip>>24)&255;
$b=($ip>>16)&255;
$c=($ip>>8)&255;
$d=$ip&255;
return "$a.$b.$c.$d";
}
On 64 bits machines max integer value is 0x7fffffffffffffff (9 223 372 036 854 775 807).
<?php
//This is a simple function to return number of digits of an integer.
//function declaration
function count_digit($number)
{
$digit = 0;
do
{
$number /= 10; //$number = $number / 10;
$number = intval($number);
$digit++;
}while($number!=0);
return $digit;
}
//function call
$num = 12312;
$number_of_digits = count_digit($num); //this is call :)
echo $number_of_digits;
//prints 5
?>
If you need to convert a numeric string (or more to the point, an object that represents a numeric value) that is greater then PHP_INT_MAX, and you don't have GMP or BCMath installed, you can cast to float.
For example, when using SimpleXMLElement, you sometimes have to cast the extracted values, such as xml attributes, because they are returned as SimpleXMLElements and not their values' native types. While print() has no trouble with converting them, other functions, such as max(), might not.
But if you cast such a value with (int), and it is over PHP_INT_MAX, you will just get PHP_INT_MAX (and vice versa for negative numbers).
The Q&D no-muss solution is to cast to (float) instead.
Integer arithmetic in PHP is more accurate than one might think. On a 32-bit system, the largest value that can be held in an INT is 2147483647.
However, a FLOAT can accurately hold integer values up to 10000000000000.
(this is because the significand precision of a double is 53-bits).
PHP offers a slew of built-in functions and automatic type-casting routines which can get pretty complicated. But most of the time, you still have to take matters into your own hands and allow PHP to do its thing. In that case, and something that has NOT been mentioned, is how to construct your code. To keep things simple, I divide all my scripts in half. The top half gives my scripts the "capability" they need, and the lower half is the actual code to be "run" or "executed".
<?php
/*
* build the program's capability - define variables and functions...
*/
$item_label = ''; // type string
$item_price = 0.0; // type float
$item_qty = 1; // type integer
$item_total = 0.0; // type float - to set use calculate()
function calculate(){
global $item_price, $item_qty, $item_total;
$item_price = number_format($item_price, 2);
$item_total = number_format(($item_price * $item_qty), 2);
}
function itemToString() {
global $item_label, $item_price, $item_qty, $item_total;
return "$item_label [price=\$$item_price, qty=$item_qty, total=\$$item_total]";
}
/*
* run the program - set data, call methods...
*/
$item_label = "Coffee";
$item_price = 3.89;
$item_qty = 2;
calculate(); // set $item_total
echo itemToString(); // -> Coffee [price=$3.89, qty=2, total=$7.78]
$item_label = "Chicken";
$item_price = .80; // per lb.
$item_qty = 3.5; // lbs.
calculate(); // set $item_total
echo itemToString(); // -> Chicken [price=$0.80, qty=3.5, total=$2.80]
?>
Note: All type-casting is done by PHP's built-in number_format() method. This allows our program to enter any number (float or int) on item price or quantity in the runtime part of our script. Also, if we explicitly cast values to integer in the capability part of our script, then we start getting results that may not be desirable for this program. For example, if in the calculate method we cast item_qty to integer, then we can no longer sell chicken by the pound!
You can make a signed, negative integer an unsigned integer (in string form) by doing the following:
<?php
$unsigned = sprintf('%u', -5);
echo $unsigned; // prints 4294967291
?>
A note about converting IP addresses for storage in database. For MySQL, this is unnecessary as it has built in support via the INET functions. Also, there is no need to use BIGINT. UNSIGNED INT is, at 4 bytes, the perfect size for holding an IP (column must be defined as UNSIGNED). This can basically halve the storage size, as BIGINT is an 8 byte data type.
INET_ATON() converts a dotted IP string to INT:
INSERT table(ip) VALUES(INET_ATON('127.0.0.1'));
INET_NTOA() converts an INT to dotted IP string:
SELECT INET_NTOA(ip) FROM table
returns '127.0.0.1'
Details:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/miscellaneous-functions.html