Mixed alpha and numeric string question

[virginiamonkeys]

I'm not sure even where to start searching for the answer for this simple quesition, so here goes:

I have a string valiable $foo="p28" (example) and $bar="p38".

Is there a way to get $foo + $bar and ignore the alpha part of it? 28 + 38?

Without parsing the variables and stripping the alpha out of it?

[devinemke]

virginiamonkeys wrote:

Without parsing the variables and stripping the alpha out of it?

what's wrong with parsing the variables and stripping the alpha out of it?

[virginiamonkeys]

I was wondering if you could tell php to identify it as an integer only and ignore the alpha via some one word command such as (int)$foo or whatever it could be.

Yes? No?