What are the best practices for handling decimal calculations in PHP to avoid precision errors?

When dealing with decimal calculations in PHP, it is important to use the appropriate functions to avoid precision errors. One common approach is to use the BCMath extension, which provides arbitrary precision arithmetic functions for working with decimal numbers. 

// Using BCMath functions to handle decimal calculations
$num1 = '10.25';
$num2 = '5.75';

$sum = bcadd($num1, $num2, 2); // Adding two numbers with precision of 2 decimal places
$diff = bcsub($num1, $num2, 2); // Subtracting two numbers with precision of 2 decimal places
$prod = bcmul($num1, $num2, 2); // Multiplying two numbers with precision of 2 decimal places
$quot = bcdiv($num1, $num2, 2); // Dividing two numbers with precision of 2 decimal places

echo "Sum: $sum\n";
echo "Difference: $diff\n";
echo "Product: $prod\n";
echo "Quotient: $quot\n";

Keywords

decimal calculations precision errors PHP floating-point arithmetic rounding errors

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