PHP Issue - A non-numeric value encountered

This error is encountered when we are going to do addition with different types of variables. See following example

$a = "";
$b = 3;

try{

$c = $a + $b;

}catch(\Exception $e){

var_dump($e->getMessage());

}

Exception is occurred. Error is "A non-numeric value encountered"

There are two solutions 

Solution 1

Change the value of variable $a into zero (0). So, both variables are getting the same type of value now. 

$a = 0;

$b = 3;

try{

       $c = $a + $b;

        echo $c;

}catch(\Exception $e){

var_dump($e->getMessage());

}

Solution 2

 You can simply cast $a when doing addition

$a = "";

$b = 3;

try{

        $c = (int) $a + $b;

        echo $c;

}catch(\Exception $e){

var_dump($e->getMessage());

}

Enjoy..