(PHP 4 >= 4.1.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)
Examples:
Variant example, PHP 4.x style

PHP versions prior to PHP 5 define a number of (undocumented) virtual properties for instances of the VARIANT class; these properties have all been removed in PHP 5 in favour of its more natural syntax; these differences are best highlighted by example: 

<?php
$v = new VARIANT(42);
print "The type is " . $v->type . "<br/>";
print "The value is " . $v->value . "<br/>";
?>
Variant example, PHP 5 style
<?php
$v = new VARIANT(42);
print "The type is " . variant_get_type($v) . "<br/>";
print "The value is " . $v . "<br/>";
?>