gettype

The gettype() function in PHP returns the type of a variable.

PHP

echo gettype(true);
// => boolean

Ruby

puts true.class;
# => TrueClass

is_object

The is_object() function allows you to check if a particular variable is an object.

PHP

$obj = new stdClass();
var_dump( is_object($obj) );
// => true

In Ruby we can check if a variable is an object by using the Object#is_a? method - however this will always return true as with Ruby everything (almost) is an object.

Ruby

puts "Hello World".is_a?(Object);
# => true