Floats

Not all numbers are as simple as integers. 0:00 We often need to keep track of fractional values like products that cost $1.99, 0:02 or distance like 2.5 miles. 0:07 Those values are called floats. 0:10 Floating point integers, real numbers or doubles, all names for the same thing. 0:12 For decimal numbers we use the PHP variable type float. 0:18 Let's start by commenting out these var dumps. 0:23 Now let's say we want to find the distance of a trip. 0:28 So we'll create two variables here, distance home and distance to work. 0:32 Distance_home, we'll set this equal to a floating point and number. 0:36 We simply set this variable equal to 1.2. 0:43 Enclose the statement with a semi colon. 0:46 Then we'll add our second floating point variable distance to work. 0:50 And will set this equal to 2.5. 0:54 Again ending with a semi-colon. 0:58 Now we can use the same type of operations we've done before. 1:01 Let's do a var dump, and we'll dump 1:06 the distance home plus the distance to work. 1:10 All right, now let's save and 1:18 run our script AS you can see we can take floating point numbers and 1:21 add them together and get returned a floating point value. 1:25 Now what if I were to add a non floating point number to this equation. 1:31 So let's say we'll and the variable num 3. 1:35 Number three is a whole number. 1:42 So let's save this script and run it again. 1:44 Now we see 6.7. 1:49 So if we take whole numbers and we sum them to floating point numbers 1:50 we're still going to get a floating point in return. 1:55 Let's add one more floating point number to make our results a whole number. 1:59 Let's add 0.3. 2:02 Again, run the script and 2:08 we see the results of seven, but the type is still a float. 2:10 Any time we're using a floating point value the result will be a float as well. 2:16 Most of the time, 2:21 you won't need to worry about defining a variable as an integer or a float. 2:22 PHP automatically handles the differences, so you don't have to. 2:26