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I've just decided to venture off into PHP land for fun and to learn, reading that php is loosely typed and that $var's can be reused is this true that the code below will pose no problem? 

$x = 996;
$x = mysql_query("SELECT aString FROM table1");

the variable x will stored as an int datatype with 996, then after the second line it will stored as a string datatype with the string from the query?

There wont be any casting errors?

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  • On a side note, mysql_query doesn't return a string. It returns a MySQL Result ID which is generally an integer that refers to a particular cached result set. Commented Aug 6, 2009 at 21:55

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You are correct; that's the definition of being "loosely typed". However, that may not be the best practice.

http://drupaler.co.uk/blog/baby-dont-you-loose-your-type-me/66 is a good read on your subject.

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Exactly- using the same variable name just confuses people that have to read the code.
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There will be no errors, except that the second line won't give you a string, mysql_query returns an internal PHP type called a resource (generally some kind of opaque handle/pointer for library functions)

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There wont be any casting errors?

Correct!

jalf explained it well here

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