nan/"not a number" is not meant to see if the data type is numeric/textual/etc..
NaN is actually a set of values which can be stored in floating-point variables, but dont actually evaluate to a proper floating point number.
The floating point system has three sections: 1 bit for the sign (+/-), an 8 bit exponent, and a 23 bit fractional part.
There are rules governing which combinations of values can be placed into each section, and some values are reserved for numbers such as infinity. This leads to certain combinations being invalid, or in other words, not a number.
is_nan
(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)
is_nan — Verifica se un dato valore non sia un numero
Descrizione
Restituisce true se val 'non รจ un numero',
come il risultato di acos(1.01).
Vedere anche is_finite() e is_infinite().
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User Contributed Notes 7 notes
darkangel at moveinmod dot net ¶
18 years ago
10basetom ¶
9 years ago
I would use is_numeric() instead of ctype_digit() if you cannot be 100% sure what data type the string will be. Example from the docs:
<?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
?>
php at darkain dot com ¶
8 years ago
Starting with PHP 7, the string 'NaN' evaluates to the NaN value as well.
Example:
var_dump( (float) 'NaN' );
PHP 5.x and HHVM:
float(0)
PHP 7.0:
float(NAN)
modern dot apocalypse at gmail dot com ¶
12 years ago
I have decided to do some testing because I am getting unusual results with the is_nan function and here are the results of my tests:
<?php
var_dump(NAN); // float NAN
var_dump(NAN == NAN); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === NAN); // boolean true
var_dump(is_nan(NAN)); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN == 12); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 12); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan(12)); // boolean false
var_dump(NAN == 12.4); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 12.4); // boolean true
var_dump(is_nan(12.4)); // boolean false
var_dump(NAN == NULL); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === NULL); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan(NULL)); // boolean false
var_dump(NAN == 'K<WNPO'); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 'K<WNPO'); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan('K<WNPO')); // null and throws a warning "Warning: is_nan() expects parameter 1 to be double, string given in NANTest.php on line 13"
php at keith tyler dot com ¶
14 years ago
It seems odd to me, but in boolean context, NAN evalutes to true.
<?php
var_dump(acos(8));
var_dump((bool)acos(8));
?>
Returns:
float(NAN)
bool(true)
Incidentally INF and -INF also evaluate to true.
