Why is this integer considered a float? - php

Question

I have created the following script for determining which page numbers to display for navigation on my website.
// query the database
$statement = $connect->prepare("SELECT COUNT(report_number) FROM reports");
$statement->execute();
$result = $statement->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
$rowCount = $result["COUNT(report_number)"];
$pgCount = ceil($rowCount / 10);
// fetch the corresponding entries from the database
if (!isset($pgParamArray["page"]) || $pgParamArray["page"] === $pgCount) {
$pgParamArray["page"] = $pgCount;
$sql = "SELECT * FROM reports ORDER BY report_number DESC LIMIT 10";
} elseif (isset($pgParamArray["page"])) {
$offset = ($pgCount - $pgParamArray["page"]) * 10;
$sql = "SELECT * FROM reports ORDER BY report_number DESC LIMIT " . $offset . ",10";
}
// calculate and display the appropriate page numbers
$upperDiff = $pgCount - $pgParamArray["page"];
$lowerDiff = $pgParamArray["page"] - 1;
for ($i = 0; $i < 5; $i++) {
$pgNo = 0;
if ($pgParamArray["page"]+2 <= $pgCount && $pgParamArray["page"]-2 >= 1) {
$pgNo = $pgParamArray["page"] + ($i - 2);
} elseif ($pgCount < 5) {
$pgNo = $i+1 <= $pgCount ? $i+1 : 0;
} elseif ($upperDiff < $lowerDiff && $upperDiff < 2 && $upperDiff >= 0) {
$pgNo = ($pgCount - 4) + $i;
} elseif ($lowerDiff < $upperDiff && $lowerDiff < 2 && $lowerDiff >= 0) {
$pgNo = $i + 1;
} else {
$pgNo = ($pgCount - 4) + $i;
}
if ($pgNo > 0) {
if ($pgNo !== $pgParamArray["page"]) {
$pgNoArray[] = ""
. "<li><div><a href='http://www.somewebsite.com/index.php/?page="
. $pgNo
. "'>"
. $pgNo
. "</a></div></li>";
} else {
$pgNoArray[] = ""
. "<li><div style='background:#333'>"
. $pgNo
. "</div></li>";
}
}
}
When I set $pgParamArray["page"] = $pgCount = ceil($rowCount/10), I have noticed that the foremost variable is still treated as a float. My question is why is $pgParamArray["page"] of type float even though ceil($rowCount/10) obviously returns an integer?

Answer 1

PHP's ceil returns a float according to their documentation.
Their rationale:
value rounded up to the next highest integer. The return value of ceil() is still of type float as the value range of float is usually bigger than that of integer.
This isn't just PHP that does this - C++ and Java both return floating point values for their ceiling functions.