What are the best practices for comparing hexadecimal values in PHP to avoid unexpected results?

When comparing hexadecimal values in PHP, it's important to convert them to integers before comparison to avoid unexpected results. This is because PHP may not handle hexadecimal strings correctly when using comparison operators. By converting the hexadecimal values to integers using `hexdec()`, you ensure that the comparison is done accurately.

$hexValue1 = '1A';
$hexValue2 = '1B';

$intValue1 = hexdec($hexValue1);
$intValue2 = hexdec($hexValue2);

if ($intValue1 == $intValue2) {
    echo "The hexadecimal values are equal.";
} elseif ($intValue1 > $intValue2) {
    echo "The first hexadecimal value is greater.";
} else {
    echo "The second hexadecimal value is greater.";
}