Return type declaration

Just like parameter type, there is also a return type; it is also optional but it is a safe practice to specify the return type.

This is how we can declare a return type:

<?php
function add($num1, $num2):int{
    return ($num1+$num2);
}

echo add(2,4); //6
echo add(2.5,4); //6

As you can see in the case of 2.5 and 4, it should be 6.5, but as we have specified int as a return type, it is performing implicit type conversion. To avoid this and to obtain an error instead of an implicit conversion, we can simply enable a strict type, as follows:

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);
function add($num1, $num2):int{
    return ($num1+$num2);
}

echo add(2,4); //6
echo add(2.5,4); //Fatal error:  Uncaught TypeError: Return value of add() must be of the type integer, float returned