The TutsPlus.com site has another great PHP tutorial for those new to the language covering mathematical functionality in the language, from the basics out to more complex topics like trigonometry and random number generation.

Basic maths is used a lot during programming. We need to frequently compare, add, multiply, subtract and divide different values when writing code.

Sometimes, the maths required in a program can be more involved. You might need to work with logarithmic, trigonometric or exponential functions. In this tutorial, I'll discuss how to use each of these functions in PHP, with examples.

This tutorial will introduce you to the built-in math functions in PHP for doing trigonometry, exponentiation, and logarithm calculations. We'll also look at rounding and generating random numbers.

They start off with some of the "heavy hitters" in PHP's math functionality and how how to perform trigonometric operations with the likes of sin, cos and tan. This is applied to create an interesting dynamic image using the GD functionality. Next up comes the exponential and logarithmic functions with simple examples followed by a section sharing some other useful math functions for more everyday needs.

On PHPBuilder.com today they've posted the next article in their "ABCs of PHP" series. This time they focus on math and number handling.

Last time we looked at text and strings in variables, in this episode we're going to continue with our exploration of PHP variables and delve deeper into math and number handling in PHP. Using numbers is not much different to using text and strings, you allocate variables and fill them in, using exactly the same techniques as you do using strings & text.

They covers some of the basic operators (+,-,*,etc), evaluation with equals, number shifting, binary and creating a "barrel shifter" to work with the binary bits of a number.

Sara Golemon, being interested in Unicode as she is, decided to investigate further when she saw a recent post about issues with Unicode math symbols:

Being a whimsical sort, I decided that actually implementing his request would be more fun than simply pish-poshing it. I'm not suggesting this be part of PHP6 (I still don't personally think it's a good idea), but it's a fun exercise and good for a conversation starter...

There's several things she can now do with the special characters including dumping out the results of divisions, comparisons and fractions natively.

Sara Golemon, being interested in Unicode as she is, decided to investigate further when she saw a recent post about issues with Unicode math symbols:

Being a whimsical sort, I decided that actually implementing his request would be more fun than simply pish-poshing it. I'm not suggesting this be part of PHP6 (I still don't personally think it's a good idea), but it's a fun exercise and good for a conversation starter...

There's several things she can now do with the special characters including dumping out the results of divisions, comparisons and fractions natively.

Paul Jones is rejoicing a bit about the OpenID and Typekey functionality Wez Furlong shared just the other day on his blog.

Wez Furlong gives us good news about implementing the math functions needed to support TypeKey and OpenID more directly within PHP.

Paul also mentions that the Solar framework has also had the Typekey support integrated for a while now (as an adapter) that uses the "big-number math functions" currently available to PHP developers. Wez's solution, however, would just about make those obsolete.

Paul Jones is rejoicing a bit about the OpenID and Typekey functionality Wez Furlong shared just the other day on his blog.

Wez Furlong gives us good news about implementing the math functions needed to support TypeKey and OpenID more directly within PHP.

Paul also mentions that the Solar framework has also had the Typekey support integrated for a while now (as an adapter) that uses the "big-number math functions" currently available to PHP developers. Wez's solution, however, would just about make those obsolete.

The Zend Developer Zone has a new post for those out there struggling with the small stuff. You've got the language down and you're learning the syntax, but there's still a few things that elude your grasp. If this is you, check out their list of "PHP Gotchas" to see if your problem is on there.

Included in their list of common problems for budding PHP developers are things like finding a "needle" in a string "haystack", working with constants, using and/or, and the __toString functionality in PHP5.

The Zend Developer Zone has a new post for those out there struggling with the small stuff. You've got the language down and you're learning the syntax, but there's still a few things that elude your grasp. If this is you, check out their list of "PHP Gotchas" to see if your problem is on there.

Included in their list of common problems for budding PHP developers are things like finding a "needle" in a string "haystack", working with constants, using and/or, and the __toString functionality in PHP5.