64-bit PHP overcomes the stupid signed-integer limit

PHP’s integer type has always been a 32-bit signed integer with a maximum value of 2,147,483,647. I thought there was no alternative.

Today I learned that you get 64-bit integers if you use the 64-bit version of PHP, so the maximum value is MUCH higher (9.2×10¹⁸).

If you don’t know, here’s how to tell:

32-bit:

$ echo '<?= PHP_INT_MAX . "\n" ?>' | php
2147483647
$ echo '<?= intval(9223372036854775807) . "\n" ?>' | php
-1

64-bit:

$ echo '<?= PHP_INT_MAX . "\n" ?>' | php
9223372036854775807
$ echo '<?= intval(9223372036854775807) . "\n" ?>' | php
9223372036854775807

This comes in handy if you use AUTO_INCREMENT integer IDs on tables with more than 2.1 billion entries…

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