When should integers be preferred over floats for calculations in PHP, especially for financial applications?

Integers should be preferred over floats for calculations in PHP, especially for financial applications, to avoid precision errors that can occur with floating-point numbers. Using integers ensures that calculations are precise and accurate when dealing with financial data that requires exact values.

// Using integers for financial calculations
$amount1 = 1000;
$amount2 = 500;

$total = $amount1 + $amount2;

echo $total; // Output: 1500