ctype_digit

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

ctype_digit — Check for numeric character(s)

Description

ctype_digit(mixed $text): bool

Checks if all of the characters in the provided string, text, are numerical.

Parameters

text

The tested string.

Note:
If an int between -128 and 255 inclusive is provided, it is interpreted as the ASCII value of a single character (negative values have 256 added in order to allow characters in the Extended ASCII range). Any other integer is interpreted as a string containing the decimal digits of the integer.

Warning

As of PHP 8.1.0, passing a non-string argument is deprecated. In the future, the argument will be interpreted as a string instead of an ASCII codepoint. Depending on the intended behavior, the argument should either be cast to string or an explicit call to chr() should be made.

Return Values

Returns true if every character in the string text is a decimal digit, false otherwise. When called with an empty string the result will always be false.

Examples

Example #1 A ctype_digit() example

<?php
$strings = array('1820.20', '10002', 'wsl!12');
foreach ($strings as $testcase) {
    if (ctype_digit($testcase)) {
        echo "The string $testcase consists of all digits.\n";
    } else {
        echo "The string $testcase does not consist of all digits.\n";
    }
}
?>

The above example will output:

The string 1820.20 does not consist of all digits.
The string 10002 consists of all digits.
The string wsl!12 does not consist of all digits.

Example #2 A ctype_digit() example comparing strings with integers

<?php

$numeric_string = '42';
$integer        = 42;

ctype_digit($numeric_string);  // true
ctype_digit($integer);         // false (ASCII 42 is the * character)

is_numeric($numeric_string);   // true
is_numeric($integer);          // true
?>

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User Contributed Notes 13 notes

down

info at directwebsolutions dot nl ¶

12 years ago

All basic PHP functions which i tried returned unexpected results. I would just like to check whether some variable only contains numbers. For example: when i spread my script to the public i cannot require users to only use numbers as string or as integer. For those situation i wrote my own function which handles all inconveniences of other functions and which is not depending on regular expressions. Some people strongly believe that regular functions slow down your script.

The reason to write this function:
1. is_numeric() accepts values like: +0123.45e6 (but you would expect it would not)
2. is_int() does not accept HTML form fields (like: 123) because they are treated as strings (like: "123").
3. ctype_digit() excepts all numbers to be strings (like: "123") and does not validate real integers (like: 123).
4. Probably some functions would parse a boolean (like: true or false) as 0 or 1 and validate it in that manner.

My function only accepts numbers regardless whether they are in string or in integer format.
<?php
    /**
     * Check input for existing only of digits (numbers)
     * @author Tim Boormans <info@directwebsolutions.nl>
     * @param $digit
     * @return bool
     */
    function is_digit($digit) {
        if(is_int($digit)) {
            return true;
        } elseif(is_string($digit)) {
            return ctype_digit($digit);
        } else {
            // booleans, floats and others
            return false;
        }
    }
?>

down

smicheal2 at gmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

Please note that ctype_digit() will say true for strings such as '00001', which are not technically valid representations of integers, while saying false to strings such as '-1', which are. It's basically a faster version of the regex /^\d+$/. As the name says, it answers the question "does this string contain only digits" literally. It does not answer "is this a valid representation of an integer". If that's what you want, use is_int(filter_var($val, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT)) instead.

down

Peter de Pijd ¶

15 years ago

Note that an empty string is also false:
ctype_digit("") // false

down

error17191 at gmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

I just wanted to clarify a flaw in the function is_digit() suggested by "info at directwebsolutions dot nl " .. 
It returns true in case of negative integers and false in case of strings that contain negative integers .
 example:
is_digit(-10); // returns ture
is_digit('-10'); // returns false

down

rlerne at gmail dot com ¶

11 years ago

Interesting to note that you must pass a STRING to this function, other values won't be typecasted (I figured it would even though above explicitly says string $text).

I.E.

<?PHP
$val = 42; //Answer to life
$x = ctype_digit($val);
?>

Will return false, even though, when typecasted to string, it would be true.

<?PHP
$val = '42';
$x = ctype_digit($val);
?>

Returns True.

Could do this too:

<?PHP
$val = 42;
$x = ctype_digit((string) $val);
?>

Which will also return true, as it should.

down

strrev xc tod noxeh ta ellij ¶

14 years ago

ctype_digit() will treat all passed integers below 256 as character-codes. It returns true for 48 through 57 (ASCII '0'-'9') and false for the rest.

ctype_digit(5) -> false
ctype_digit(48) -> true
ctype_digit(255) -> false
ctype_digit(256) -> true

(Note: the PHP type must be an int; if you pass strings it works as expected)

down

a_p_leeming at hotmail dot com ¶

15 years ago

Also note that



<?php ctype_digit("-1");   //false ?>

down

mdsky at web dot de ¶

14 years ago

is_numeric gives true by f. ex. 1e3 or 0xf5 too. So it's not the same as ctype_digit, which just gives true when only values from 0 to 9 are entered.

down

John Saman ¶

14 years ago

Using is_numeric function is quite faster than ctype_digit.

is_numeric took 0.237 Seconds for one million runs. while ctype_digit took 0.470 Seconds.

down

-3

zorrosNOSPAMwordsman at NOSPAM dot gmail dot com ¶

8 years ago

If you want to verify whether or not a variable contains only digits, you can type cast it to a string and back to int and see if the result is identical. Like so:

<?php

// (bool) TRUE if only digits, FALSE otherwise
$isOnlyDigits = (string) (int) $input === (string) $input;

?>

I haven't benchmarked it, but I'm guessing it's significantly faster then regular expressions.

down

-5

raul dot 3k at gmail dot com ¶

15 years ago

The ctype_digit can be used in a simple form to validate a field:
<?php
$field = $_POST["field"];
if(!ctype_digit($field)){
  echo "It's not a digit";
}
?>

Note:
Digits is 0-9

down

-3

brcontainer at yahoo dot com dot br ¶

6 years ago

ctype_digit don't support negative value in string:

<?php
var_dump( ctype_digit('-10') ); //return bool(false)
?>

Improved (and simplified) Tim Boormans code:

<?php
/**
 * Check input for existing only of digits (numbers)
 * @author Guilherme Nascimento <brcontainer@yahoo.com.br>
 * @param $digit
 * @return bool
 */
function is_digit($digit)
{
    return preg_match('#^-?\d+$#', $digit) && is_int((int) $digit);
}

down

-5

divinity76 at gmail dot com ¶

3 years ago

an alternative if you want to check if it's a valid integer: 

<?php
if(false!==filter_var($v, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT)){
    // it's a valid int!
    $v=(int)$v;
}else{
    // it's not a valid int
}
?>

or if you want to check that it's a positive integer (>= 0): 
<?php
if(false!==filter_var($v, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, ["options"=>["min_range"=>0]])){
    // it's a valid positive integer!
    $v = (int)$v;
}else{
    // it's not a valid positive integer
}

?>

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ctype_digit

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Examples

See Also

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User Contributed Notes 13 notes