PHP: Best way to check if input is a valid number?

Question

What is the best way of checking if input is numeric?

• 1-
• +111+
• 5xf
• 0xf

Those kind of numbers should not be valid. Onl

Answer 1

filter_var()

$options = array(
    'options' => array('min_range' => 0)
);

if (filter_var($int, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options) !== FALSE) {
 // you're good
}

Answer 2

The most secure way

if(preg_replace('/^(\-){0,1}[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){0,1}/', '', $value) == ""){
  //if all made of numbers "-" or ".", then yes is number;
}

Answer 3

For PHP version 4 or later versions:

<?PHP
$input = 4;
if(is_numeric($input)){  // return **TRUE** if it is numeric
    echo "The input is numeric";
}else{
    echo "The input is not numeric";
}
?>

Answer 4

return ctype_digit($num) && (int) $num > 0

Answer 5

ctype_digit was built precisely for this purpose.

Answer 6

I use

if(is_numeric($value) && $value > 0 && $value == round($value, 0)){

to validate if a value is numeric, positive and integral

http://php.net/is_numeric

I don't really like ctype_digit as its not as readable as "is_numeric" and actually has less flaws when you really want to validate that a value is numeric.