Incrementing/Decrementing Operators

PHP supports pre- and post-increment and decrement operators. Those unary operators allow to increment or decrement the value by one.

Increment/decrement Operators
Example Name Effect
++$a Pre-increment Increments $a by one, then returns $a.
$a++ Post-increment Returns $a, then increments $a by one.
--$a Pre-decrement Decrements $a by one, then returns $a.
$a-- Post-decrement Returns $a, then decrements $a by one.

Here's a simple example script:

<?php
echo 'Post-increment:', PHP_EOL;
$a = 5;
var_dump($a++);
var_dump($a);

echo
'Pre-increment:', PHP_EOL;
$a = 5;
var_dump(++$a);
var_dump($a);

echo
'Post-decrement:', PHP_EOL;
$a = 5;
var_dump($a--);
var_dump($a);

echo
'Pre-decrement:', PHP_EOL;
$a = 5;
var_dump(--$a);
var_dump($a);
?>

The above example will output:

Post-increment:
int(5)
int(6)
Pre-increment:
int(6)
int(6)
Post-decrement:
int(5)
int(4)
Pre-decrement:
int(4)
int(4)
Warning

The increment and decrement operators have no effect on values of type bool. A E_WARNING is emitted as of PHP 8.3.0, because this will implicitly cast the value to int in the future.

The decrement operator has no effect on values of type null. A E_WARNING is emitted as of PHP 8.3.0, because this will implicitly cast the value to int in the future.

The decrement operator has no effect on non- numeric string. A E_WARNING is emitted as of PHP 8.3.0, because a TypeError will be thrown in the future.

Note:

Internal objects that support overloading addition and/or subtraction can also be incremented and/or decremented. One such internal object is GMP.

PERL string increment feature

Warning

This feature is soft-deprecated as of PHP 8.3.0. The str_increment() function should be used instead.

It is possible to increment a non- numeric string in PHP. The string must be an alphanumerical ASCII string. Which increments letters up to the next letter, when reaching the letter Z the increment is carried to the value on the left. For example, $a = 'Z'; $a++; turns $a into 'AA'.

Example #1 PERL string increment example

<?php
echo '== Alphabetic strings ==' . PHP_EOL;
$s = 'W';
for (
$n=0; $n<6; $n++) {
echo ++
$s . PHP_EOL;
}
// Alphanumeric strings behave differently
echo '== Alphanumeric strings ==' . PHP_EOL;
$d = 'A8';
for (
$n=0; $n<6; $n++) {
echo ++
$d . PHP_EOL;
}
$d = 'A08';
for (
$n=0; $n<6; $n++) {
echo ++
$d . PHP_EOL;
}
?>

The above example will output:

== Alphabetic strings ==
X
Y
Z
AA
AB
AC
== Alphanumeric strings ==
A9
B0
B1
B2
B3
B4
A09
A10
A11
A12
A13
A14
Warning

If the alphanumerical string can be interpreted as a numeric string it will be cast to an int or float. This is particularly an issue with strings that look like a floating point numbers written in exponential notation. The str_increment() function does not suffer from these implicit type cast.

Example #2 Alphanumerical string converted to float

<?php
$s
= "5d9";
var_dump(++$s);
var_dump(++$s);
?>

The above example will output:

string(3) "5e0"
float(6)

This is because the value "5e0" is interpreted as a float and cast to the value 5.0 before being incremented.

add a note add a note

User Contributed Notes 10 notes

up
60
hartmut at php dot net
11 years ago
Note that

$a="9D9"; var_dump(++$a);   => string(3) "9E0"

but counting onwards from there

$a="9E0"; var_dump(++$a);   => float(10)

this is due to "9E0" being interpreted as a string representation of the float constant 9E0 (or 9e0), and thus evalutes to 9 * 10^0 = 9 (in a float context)
up
3
ayyappan dot ashok at gmail dot com
7 years ago
Rule for Increment and decrement:

At some moment we could be confused with increment and decrement in various cases. To avoid such cases, let us follow certain logical rule behind to get successful results with out mess.

<?php
           $n
= 3;
           echo
$n-- + --$n;
           echo
"<br/>";
           echo
$n;
?>

1. Postfix form of ++,-- operator follows the rule  [ use-then-change ],

2. Prefix form (++x,--x) follows the rule [ change-then-use ].

Solution based on the rule:

Step 1: 
use then change   $n--  use is 3 and change is 2

Step 2. 
change then use   --$n  change is 2 and use is 1

Step 3.
use + use = (3 + 1) = 4

Courtesy : stackoverflow : Sunil Dhillon : 4686665
up
2
aluciffer at hotmail dot com
9 years ago
Regarding character incrementing and PHP following Perl's convention with character operations.
Actually i found that there is a difference, and incrementing and decrementing unfortunately does not yield the reverse, expected results.
For example, the following piece of code:
<?php
echo '== Alphabets ==' . PHP_EOL;
$s = 'W';
for (
$n=0; $n<10; $n++) {
    echo ++
$s . ' ';
}
echo
PHP_EOL;

for (
$n=10; $n>0; $n--) {
    echo (--
$s) . ' ';
}
?>
Will output:
== Alphabets ==
X Y Z AA AB AC AD AE AF AG
AG AG AG AG AG AG AG AG AG AG

Please note that the decrement operator has no effect on the character or string.

On the other hand, in Perl, the similar script:

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $s = 'W';

foreach (1 .. 10) {
print  ++$s . " ";


print "\n";

foreach (1 .. 10) {
print --$s . " ";
}

Will output:

X Y Z AA AB AC AD AE AF AG
-1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10
up
3
cleong at letstalk dot com
22 years ago
Note that the ++ and -- don't convert a boolean to an int. The following code will loop forever.

function a($start_index) {
for($i = $start_index; $i < 10; $i++) echo "\$i = $i\n";
}

a(false);

This behavior is, of course, very different from that in C. Had me pulling out my hair for a while.
up
0
dsbeam at gmail dot com
14 years ago
When using the ++ operator by itself on a variable, ++$var is faster than $var++ and uses slightly less memory (in my experiments).  It would seem like this could be optimized in the language during runtime (if $var++ is the only thing in the whole statement, it could be treated as ++$var).

I conducted many tests (I believe to be fair), and here's one of the results:

$i++ took 8.47515535355 seconds and 2360 bytes
++$i took 7.80081486702 seconds and 2160 bytes

Here's my code.  If anyone sees a bias in it, tell me.  I conducted it many times, each time going through a loop one million iterations and doing each test 10 - 15 times (10 - 15 million uses of the ++ operator).

<?php

ini_set
( 'MAX_EXEC_TIME', 120 );
ob_start( );

$num_tests = 10;
$startFirst = $startSecond = $endFirst = $endSecond = $startFirstMemory = $endFirstMemory = $startSecondMemory = $endSecondMemory = $someVal = 0;
$times = array( '$i++' => array( 'time' => 0, 'memory' => 0 ), '++$i' => array( 'total' => 0, 'memory' => 0 ) );

for(
$j = 0; $j < $num_tests; ++$j )
{
        for(
$i = 0, $startFirstMemory = memory_get_usage( ), $startFirst = microtime( true ); $i < 10000000; $i++ ){ $someval = 2; }
       
$endFirstMemory = memory_get_usage( );
       
$endFirst = microtime( true );

        for(
$i = 0, $startSecondMemory = memory_get_usage( ), $startSecond = microtime( true ); $i < 10000000; ++$i ){ $someval = 2; }
       
$endSecondMemory = memory_get_usage( );
       
$endSecond = microtime( true );

       
$times[ '$i++' ][ $j ] = array( 'startTime' => $startFirst, 'endTime' => $endFirst, 'startMemory' => $startFirstMemory, 'endMemory' => $endFirstMemory );
       
$times[ '++$i' ][ $j ] = array( 'startTime' => $startSecond, 'endTime' => $endSecond, 'startMemory' => $startSecondMemory, 'endMemory' => $endSecondMemory );
}

for(
$i = 0; $i < $num_tests; ++$i )
{
       
$times[ '$i++' ][ 'time' ] += ( $times[ '$i++' ][ $i ][ 'endTime' ] - $times[ '$i++' ][ $i ][ 'startTime' ] );
       
$times[ '++$i' ][ 'time' ] += ( $times[ '++$i' ][ $i ][ 'endTime' ] - $times[ '++$i' ][ $i ][ 'startTime' ] );
       
$times[ '$i++' ][ 'memory' ] += ( $times[ '$i++' ][ $i ][ 'endMemory' ] - $times[ '$i++' ][ $i ][ 'startMemory' ] );
       
$times[ '++$i' ][ 'memory' ] += ( $times[ '++$i' ][ $i ][ 'endMemory' ] - $times[ '++$i' ][ $i ][ 'startMemory' ] );
}

echo
'There were ' . $num_tests . ' tests conducted, here\'s the totals<br /><br />
$i++ took '
. $times[ '$i++' ][ 'time' ] . ' seconds and ' . $times[ '$i++' ][ 'memory' ] . ' bytes<br />
++$i took '
. $times[ '++$i' ][ 'time' ] . ' seconds and ' . $times[ '++$i' ][ 'memory' ] . ' bytes';

ob_end_flush( );

?>

Try it yourself, ;)
up
-4
Brad Proctor
13 years ago
I ran some tests (on PHP 5.3.3) of my own and was surprised to find $i += 1 to be the fastest method of incrementing.  Here are the methods fastest to slowest:

$i += 1;
++$i;
$i++;
$i = $i + 1;
up
-3
ayyappan dot ashok at gmail dot com
7 years ago
Rule Incrementing or decrementing booleans has no effect.

It has an effort on Incrementing or decrementing booleans.

Please look over the code.

$var = true;
echo ++$var;   //Results 1

Similarly

$var = true;
echo ++$var;   //Results 1

$var = (int)false;
echo ++$var;   //Results 1

$var = (int)false;
echo $var++;   //Results 0;   

Note : Tested on PHP Version 5.5.32
up
-3
leo zandvliet
5 years ago
Please note the difference between post-incrementing in a for-loop and recursive function calls (don't use it in the latter!).

<?php
$increment
= $preIncrement = $postIncrement = 1;
echo
$increment.' - '.$preIncrement.' - '.$postIncrement;
echo
'<br>';
echo (
$increment+1).' - '.(++$preIncrement).' - '.($postIncrement++);
echo
'<br>';
echo (
$increment+1).' - '.(++$preIncrement).' - '.($postIncrement++);
echo
'<br>';
echo (
$increment+1).' - '.(++$preIncrement).' - '.($postIncrement++);
?>

Outputs:
1 - 1 - 1
2 - 2 - 1
2 - 3 - 2
2 - 4 - 3

The for-loop:
<?php
for($i=0; $i<4; $i++)
{
    echo
$i.'<br>';
}
?>

Outputs:
0
1
2
3

And the 'headache' mistake, post-increment as parameter of a recursive call:
<?php
testFunctionNesting
(3, 1, 1, 1);

function
testFunctionNesting($max, $increment, $preIncrement, $postIncrement)
{   
    echo
$increment.' - '.$preIncrement.' - '.$postIncrement;
    echo
'<br>';
   
    if(
$increment>=$max)
    {
       
$inc = $increment;
       
$pre = $preIncrement;
       
$post = $postIncrement;
        return;
    }
       
   
   
testFunctionNesting($max, ($increment+1), (++$preIncrement), ($postIncrement++));
}
?>

Output shows that the postIncremented value is never really available as incremented value:
1 - 1 - 1
2 - 2 - 1
3 - 3 - 1
up
-11
sneskid at hotmail dot com
14 years ago
(related to what "Are Pedersen" wrote)
With arrays it can lead to much confusion if your index variable is altered on the right side of the = sign, either with ++|-- or even when passed to a function by reference..
Consider these (PHP 5):
<?php
$A
[$a] = ++$a; // [1]=1
$B[++$b] = ++$b; // [1]=2
$C[$c+=0] = ++$c; // [0]=1
?>
In 'A' you have to be aware that PHP evaluates $A[$a] last.
Yet in 'B' and 'C' PHP evaluates the index and saves it in a temporary variable.

You can always force PHP to evaluate a variable without explicitly storing it as a named variable first, with a simple "+=0" like in example 'C'.

Compared to 'A', 'C' gives the more logically expected result, when we expect evaluation occurs left to right.
PHP does evaluate left to right BUT it will attempt to cut down on temporary variables, which can lead to confusing results.

So just be aware and use either behavior to your advantage for the desired functionality.
up
-16
fred at surleau dot com
22 years ago
Other samples :
$l="A";      $l++; -> $l="B"
$l="A0";     $l++; -> $l="A1"
$l="A9";     $l++; -> $l="B0"
$l="Z99";    $l++; -> $l="AA00"
$l="5Z9";    $l++; -> $l="6A0"
$l="9Z9";    $l++; -> $l="10A0"
$l="9z9";    $l++; -> $l="10a0"
$l="J85410"; $l++; -> $l="J85411"
$l="J99999"; $l++; -> $l="K00000"
$l="K00000"; $l++; -> $l="K00001"
To Top