is_numeric in PHP

is_numeric — Finds whether a variable is a number or a numeric string

Syntax: 
bool is_numeric ( mixed $var )

Finds whether the given variable is numeric. Numeric strings consist of optional sign, any number of digits, optional decimal part and optional exponential part. Thus +0123.45e6 is a valid numeric value. Hexadecimal (e.g. 0xf4c3b00c), Binary (e.g. 0b10100111001), Octal (e.g. 0777) notation is allowed too but only without sign, decimal and exponential part.
Parameters: 

var

    The variable being evaluated.

Return Values:

Returns TRUE if var is a number or a numeric string, FALSE otherwise.
Examples:

Example #1 is_numeric() examples
<?php
$tests = array(
    "42",
    1337,
    0x539,
    02471,
    0b10100111001,
    1337e0,
    "not numeric",
    array(),
    9.1
);

foreach ($tests as $element) {
    if (is_numeric($element)) {
        echo "'{$element}' is numeric", PHP_EOL;
    } else {
        echo "'{$element}' is NOT numeric", PHP_EOL;
    }
}
?>

The above example will output:

'42' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'1337' is numeric
'not numeric' is NOT numeric
'Array' is NOT numeric
'9.1' is numeric