What are the potential pitfalls of using integer typecasting for values like postal codes in PHP?

Using integer typecasting for values like postal codes in PHP can lead to data loss or incorrect values being stored. Postal codes are typically alphanumeric and can contain leading zeros, which will be removed when typecasted to an integer. To avoid this issue, it is recommended to store postal codes as strings. 

// Incorrect way of storing postal code as integer
$postalCode = (int) "02134";
echo $postalCode; // Output: 2134

// Correct way of storing postal code as string
$postalCode = "02134";
echo $postalCode; // Output: 02134

Keywords

integer typecasting postal codes data validation PHP potential errors

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