is_nan

(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)

is_nan — Finds whether a value is not a number

Description

bool is_nan ( float $val )

Checks whether val is 'not a number', like the result of acos(1.01).

Parameters

val: The value to check

Return Values

Returns TRUE if val is 'not a number', else FALSE.

Examples

Example #1 is_nan() example


<?php
// Invalid calculation, will return a 
// NaN value
$nan = acos(8);

var_dump($nan, is_nan($nan));
?>

The above example will output:

float(NAN)
bool(true)

User Contributed Notes

darkangel at moveinmod dot net

10 years ago


nan/"not a number" is not meant to see if the data type is numeric/textual/etc..

NaN is actually a set of values which can be stored in floating-point variables, but dont actually evaluate to a proper floating point number.

The floating point system has three sections: 1 bit for the sign (+/-), an 8 bit exponent, and a 23 bit fractional part.
There are rules governing which combinations of values can be placed into each section, and some values are reserved for numbers such as infinity. This leads to certain combinations being invalid, or in other words, not a number.

php at darkain dot com

19 days ago


Starting with PHP 7, the string 'NaN' evaluates to the NaN value as well. 

Example:
var_dump( (float) 'NaN' );

PHP 5.x and HHVM:
float(0)

PHP 7.0:
float(NAN)

10basetom

11 months ago


I would use is_numeric() instead of ctype_digit() if you cannot be 100% sure what data type the string will be. Example from the docs:

<?php
$numeric_string = '42';
$integer        = 42;

ctype_digit($numeric_string);  // true
ctype_digit($integer);         // false (ASCII 42 is the * character)

is_numeric($numeric_string);   // true
is_numeric($integer);          // true
?>

J.K.

6 years ago


For seeing whether or not something is a number, use ctype_digit().

modern dot apocalypse at gmail dot com

4 years ago


I have decided to do some testing because I am getting unusual results with the is_nan function and here are the results of my tests:

<?php
var_dump(NAN); // float NAN

var_dump(NAN == NAN); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === NAN); // boolean true
var_dump(is_nan(NAN)); // boolean true

var_dump(NAN == 12); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 12); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan(12)); // boolean false

var_dump(NAN == 12.4); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 12.4); // boolean true
var_dump(is_nan(12.4)); // boolean false

var_dump(NAN == NULL); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === NULL); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan(NULL)); // boolean false

var_dump(NAN == 'K<WNPO'); // boolean true
var_dump(NAN === 'K<WNPO'); // boolean false
var_dump(is_nan('K<WNPO')); // null and throws a warning "Warning: is_nan() expects parameter 1 to be double, string given in NANTest.php on line 13"

php at keith tyler dot com