Conversion Filters

PHP does provide several functions and mechanisms for converting data types and formats, which might collectively be considered as tools for data conversion. These include:

  1. Type Casting: PHP allows for explicit type casting where you can convert one data type to another. For example, (int)$variable will convert $variable to an integer, and (string)$variable will convert it to a string.
  2. Conversion Functions: PHP has built-in functions for converting data types. Functions like intval(), floatval(), and strval() are used to convert values to integers, floats, and strings, respectively.
  3. Date and Time Conversion: Functions like strtotime() and date() are used to convert between timestamps and human-readable date/time formats.
  4. Serialization and Unserialization: PHP provides functions like serialize() and unserialize() for converting objects or array data to a storable string format and vice versa.
  5. JSON Conversion: Functions like json_encode() and json_decode() are used to convert arrays or objects to JSON format and to convert JSON formatted strings back into PHP arrays or objects.
  6. String Functions: Various string functions can be used to manipulate and convert strings, such as strtoupper(), strtolower(), str_replace(), etc.
  7. Array Functions: Functions like array_map() can be used to apply a callback to the elements of an array, effectively allowing for custom conversion logic.