Function to convert char to num?

[username746]

i've poked around

http://www.php.net/

and

http://www.zend.com/

i also have a two books on PHP, but i cant seem to find (effienctly) the functions to convert characters (string) to numbers. Similar to the "to_number_even" SQL function.

thanks in advance.

[rrijnders]

http://www.phpbuilder.com/manual/language.types.type-juggling.php

[username746]

thanks for the speedy reply.