What are the best practices for handling numerical data types in PHP to avoid unexpected results?

When handling numerical data types in PHP, it is important to be aware of potential issues such as type juggling and floating-point precision errors. To avoid unexpected results, it is recommended to explicitly cast variables to the desired data type and use functions like intval() or floatval() for conversions. Additionally, using strict comparison operators (===) can help prevent unintended type coercion.

// Example of explicitly casting variables to avoid unexpected results
$number1 = "10";
$number2 = 5;

// Cast $number1 to integer to ensure both variables are of the same type
$sum = intval($number1) + $number2;

echo $sum; // Output: 15