My php function doesn't work - integer to string conversion issues - php

Question

This is my php function it must return "5" but it returns nothing.
<?php
function get_second($num){
$second = $num[1]; //must return second number of the variable.
return $second;
}
$numbers=456789;
echo get_second($numbers);
?>
When I tried out this code, this returns nothing (NULL, empty).
But I tried out this function below, worked perfectly.
<?php
function get_second($num){
$second = $num[1]; //must return second number of the variable.
return $second;
}
$numbers=$_POST['number_input'];//that includes numbers
echo get_second($numbers);
?>
This code returns me second number of the post data. What I must do to work my First function? What is the difference between first $numbers variable and second $numbers variable?

Answer 1

Here the problem has to be better defined: how to get the second digit from a number. Your initial approach was correct in logic, but incorrect in the assumption that a number is a order set of characters. Only strings are ordered set of characters. Once you transform the integer 45678 to the string 45678 you can easily intercept the second character by using substr or even directly the string - because in PHP strings can be treated as arrays of characters.
#RamRaider solution is better than other have suggested but is overkill to use preg_split. Other solutions ask you to modify the type of the variable which is not done by adding quotes, but is done by casting to string, which is simpler and faster than a regular expression and you maintain your original variable in original form and your original function definition.
function get_second($num){
$second = $num[1]; //must return second number of the variable.
return $second;
}
$numbers = 456789;
// casting to string
echo get_second((string)$numbers);
// or transform to string by concatenation to a string
echo get_second($numbers ."");
// even quoting works
echo get_second("$numbers");
// using strval
echo get_second(strval($numbers));
// using settype
echo get_second(settype($numbers, "string"));

Answer 2

Try this: (add quotes to your integer variable)
<?php
function get_second($num){
$second = $num[1]; //must return second number of the variable.
return $second;
}
$numbers="456789";
echo get_second($numbers);
?>

Answer 3

If you want to get Character by its number then you can use substr()
function get_second($num)
{
return substr($num,1,1);
}
$numbers="456789";
echo get_second($numbers);

Answer 4

you are declaring a number in the $number variable.
if you want to view the second element than you have to use string.
try
$numbers= "456789";
it will output 5.

Answer 5

You could use preg_split to force an array from which you can choose any number by index, like:
$number=12358397;
function get_number($num,$i){
$num=preg_split( '#^\d$#', $num );
return $num[0][$i];
}
echo ' [1] > > > ' . get_number($number,1);