Arithmetic Operators

Remember basic arithmetic from school? These work just like those.

Arithmetic Operators
ExampleNameResult
+$aIdentity Conversion of $a to int or float as appropriate.
-$aNegationOpposite of $a.
$a + $bAdditionSum of $a and $b.
$a - $bSubtractionDifference of $a and $b.
$a * $bMultiplicationProduct of $a and $b.
$a / $bDivisionQuotient of $a and $b.
$a % $bModuloRemainder of $a divided by $b.
$a ** $bExponentiationResult of raising $a to the $b'th power.

The division operator ("/") returns a float value unless the two operands are integers (or strings that get converted to integers) and the numbers are evenly divisible, in which case an integer value will be returned. For integer division, see intdiv().

Operands of modulo are converted to int before processing. For floating-point modulo, see fmod().

The result of the modulo operator % has the same sign as the dividend — that is, the result of $a % $b will have the same sign as $a. For example:

<?php

echo (5 % 3)."\n"; // prints 2
echo (5 % -3)."\n"; // prints 2
echo (-5 % 3)."\n"; // prints -2
echo (-5 % -3)."\n"; // prints -2

?>
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