Get the type of a variable

# gettype

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

gettype — Get the type of a variable

### Description

gettype(mixed `$value`): string

Returns the type of the PHP variable `value`. For type checking, use `is_*` functions.

### Parameters

`value`

  The variable being type checked.

### Return Values

Possible values for the returned string are:

- `"boolean"`
- `"integer"`
- `"double"` (for historical reasons `"double"` is returned in case of a float, and not simply `"float"`)
- `"string"`
- `"array"`
- `"object"`
- `"resource"`
- `"resource (closed)"` as of PHP 7.2.0
- `"NULL"`
- `"unknown type"`

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
7.2.0 | Closed resources are now reported as `'resource (closed)'`. Previously the returned value for closed resources were `'unknown type'`.

### Examples

Example #1 gettype() example

`<?php
$data = array(1, 1., NULL, new stdClass, 'foo');
foreach ($data as $value) {
echo gettype($value), "\n";
}
?>`

The above example will output something similar to:

    integer
    double
    NULL
    object
    string

### See Also

- get_debug_type() - Gets the type name of a variable in a way that is suitable for debugging
- settype() - Set the type of a variable
- get_class() - Returns the name of the class of an object
- is_array() - Finds whether a variable is an array
- is_bool() - Finds out whether a variable is a boolean
- is_callable() - Verify that a value can be called as a function from the current scope
- is_float() - Finds whether the type of a variable is float
- is_int() - Find whether the type of a variable is integer
- is_null() - Finds whether a variable is null
- is_numeric() - Finds whether a variable is a number or a numeric string
- is_object() - Finds whether a variable is an object
- is_resource() - Finds whether a variable is a resource
- is_scalar() - Finds whether a variable is a scalar
- is_string() - Find whether the type of a variable is string
- function_exists() - Return true if the given function has been defined
- method_exists() - Checks if the class method exists

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