What is (int) in PHP ??

[thelynx]

I am patching a package that has the following code to build a mysql query:

$orders_query = "select orders_id from " . TABLE_ORDERS . " 
                     where customers_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_SESSION_VARS['customer_id'] . "'
                     order by date_purchased desc limit 1";

QUESTION: What is the (int) doing? The php manual shows only intvar to provide the integer, but it doesn't seem to complain about this use of (int). Any ideas? Is it doing the same thing but not documented?

thanks

[thorpe]

its called type casting, and it bassically inforces $HTTP_SESSION_VARS['customer_id'] to be of data type int.

[thelynx]

doh!
Thanks