How do the PHP equality (== double equals) and identity (=== triple equals) comparison operators differ?

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Equal Operator ==

The comparison operator called Equal Operator is the double equal sign “==”. This operator accepts two inputs to compare and returns true value if both of the values are same (It compares only value of variable, not data types) and return a false value if both of the values are not same.
This should always be kept in mind that the present equality operator == is different from the assignment operator =. The assignment operator changes and assigns the variable on the left to have a new value as the variable on right, while the equal operator == tests for equality and returns true or false as per the comparison results.
Example:

php

<?php
 
// Variable contains integer value
$x = 999;
 
// Variable contains string value
$y = '999';
 
// Compare $x and $y
if ($x == $y)
    echo 'Same content';
else
    echo 'Different content';
?>

Output:

Same content

Identical Operator ===

The comparison operator called as the Identical operator is the triple equal sign “===”. This operator allows for a much stricter comparison between the given variables or values.
This operator returns true if both variable contains same information and same data types otherwise return false.
Example:

php

<?php
 
// Variable contains integer value
$x = 999;
 
// Variable contains string value
$y = '999';
 
// Compare $x and $y
if ($x === $y)
    echo 'Data type and value both are same';
else
    echo 'Data type or value are different';
?>