• An operator is a special symbol that tells the compiler to perform some task.
    PHP offers various operators to perform different tasks.
    We can divide them into the following categories based on their operations.
  1. Arithmetic Operators
  2. Assignment Operators
  3. Incrementing/Decrementing Operators
  4. Relational Operators
  5. Logical Operators
  6. Array Operators
  7. Concatenate operator

Arithmetic Operators

Arithmetic operators are used to perform arithmetic tasks such as addition, subtraction, division etc. Main operators in this category are as follow:

Operator Name Description Example Result
x + y Addition Sum of x and y 2 + 2 4
x – y Subtraction Difference of x and y 5 – 2 3
x * y Multiplication Product of x and y 5 * 2 10
x / y Division Quotient of x and y 15 / 5 3
x % y Modulus Remainder of x divided by y 5 % 2
10 % 8
10 % 2
1
2
0
– x Negation Opposite of x – 2
a . b Concatenation Concatenate two strings “Hi” . “Ha” HiHa

Assignment Operators

  • Assignment operator is used to assign righ hand side value to left hand side variable.
  • In PHP “=” is used as assignment operator. It means that the left operand gets the value of the expression on the right hand side.
  • For example the following code will assign the value 10 to variable x
$x = 10 ;
  • Some various forms of assignment are as follow:
Assignment  Remark Description
x = y x = y The left operand gets set to the value of the expression on the right
x += y x = x + y Addition
x -= y x = x – y Subtraction
x *= y x = x * y Multiplication
x /= y x = x / y Division
x %= y x = x % y Modulus

Incrementing/Decrementing Operators

  • Increment and decrement operator adds and subtracts to and from the current value by 1 respectively.
  • Basic increment and decrement operators are “++” and “ –“.
  • It has two forms: prefix and postfix.
Operator Name Description
++ x Prefix Increments x by one, then returns x
x ++ Postfix Returns x, then increments x by one
— x Prefix Decrements x by one, then returns x
x — Postfix Returns x, then decrements x by one

Relational Operators

  • Relational operators are used to compare two values.
  • Some examples are as follow:
Operator Name Description Example
x == y Equal True if x is equal to y 5==8 returns false
x === y Identical True if x is equal to y, and they are of same type 5===”5″ returns false
x != y Not equal True if x is not equal to y 5!=8 returns true
x <> y Not equal True if x is not equal to y 5<>8 returns true
x !== y Not identical True if x is not equal to y, or they are not of same type 5!==”5″ returns true
x > y Greater than True if x is greater than y 5>8 returns false
x < y Less than True if x is less than y 5<8 returns true
x >= y Greater than or equal to True if x is greater than or equal to y 5>=8 returns false
x <= y Less than or equal to True if x is less than or equal to y 5<=8 returns true

Logical Operators

  • Logical operators are used to perform logical task.
Operator Name Description Example
x and y And True if both x and y are true x=6
y=3
(x < 10 and y > 1) returns true
x or y Or True if either or both x and y are true x=6
y=3
(x==6 or y==5) returns true
x xor y Xor True if either x or y is true, but not both x=6
y=3
(x==6 xor y==3) returns false
x && y And True if both x and y are true x=6
y=3
(x < 10 && y > 1) returns true
x || y Or True if either or both x and y are true x=6
y=3
(x==5 || y==5) returns false
! x Not True if x is not true x=6
y=3
!(x==y) returns true

Array Operators

  • Array operators are used to manipulate and perform different operations on array such as joining, equality check etc.
  • Some examples are as follow:
Operator Name Description
x + y Union Union of x and y
x == y Equality True if x and y have the same key/value pairs
x === y Identity True if x and y have the same key/value pairs in the same order and of the same types
x != y Inequality True if x is not equal to y
x <> y Inequality True if x is not equal to y
x !== y Non-identity True if x is not identical to y

 Concatenate Operator

In PHP we can use period (“.”) operator as a concatenate operator to join two strings.

For example:

$str1 = "Hello" ;
$str2 = "Welcome!" ;

echo $str2 . $str1 ;
  • The above code will display “Hello Welcome!” by joining two strings str1 and str2.