Remember basic arithmetic from school? These work just like those.
| Example | Name | Result |
|---|---|---|
| +$a | Identity | Conversion of $a to int or float as appropriate. |
| -$a | Negation | Opposite of $a. |
| $a + $b | Addition | Sum of $a and $b. |
| $a - $b | Subtraction | Difference of $a and $b. |
| $a * $b | Multiplication | Product of $a and $b. |
| $a / $b | Division | Quotient of $a and $b. |
| $a % $b | Modulus | Remainder of $a divided by $b. |
| $a ** $b | Exponentiation | Result of raising $a to the $b'th power. Introduced in PHP 5.6. |
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.
Operands of modulus are converted to integers (by stripping the decimal part) before processing.
The result of the modulus 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
?>
See also the manual page on Math functions.