Working with PHP Octals and String conversions

Question

I'm working with a database that has a bunch of serial numbers that are prefixed with leading 0's. So a serial number can look like 00032432 or 56332432. Problem is with PHP I don't understand how the conversion system with octals works. A specific example is that I'm trying to convert and compare all of these integer based numbers with strings. Is it possible to convert an octal, such as 00234 to a string like "00234" so that I can compare it? edit - adding a specific example. I would like to be able to run str functions on the serial like below. ``` $serial = 00032432; // coming from DB if(substr($serial, 0, 1) == '0') { // do something } ```

Accepted Answer

When you convert with `(string) $number`, you always get a string in decimal base, it doesn't matter if you write the number in octal mode or in decimal mode, an int is an int and it has not itself a base. It's his string representation that have to be interpreted with a base.

You can get the octal string representation of a number in this way:

```
$str = base_convert((string) 00032432, 10, 8);
```

or giving the number in decimal rep:

```
$str = base_convert((string) 13594, 10, 8);    
```

or, more concisely but less clearly:

```
 $str = base_convert(00032432, 10, 8);
 $str = base_convert(13594, 10, 8);
```

In the last the string conversion is made implicitly. The examples give all as result $str = "32432".

base_convert converts a string representation of a number from a base to another

If you want also the zeros in your string, you can add them with simple math.

Hope this can help you.

Working with PHP Octals and String conversions

Solution

Problem