Reasons to use PHP(eschrade.com)

   /** Immutable scalar value. */
   public final class Scalar {

       private final Integer intValue;  // not int so that "null" is meaningful
       private final String stringValue;

       public Scalar(String string) {
           stringValue = string;
       }

       public Scalar(int i) {
           intValue = new Integer(i);
       }

       public String toString() {
           if (stringValue == null) {
               fixupString();
           }
           return stringValue;
       }

       public int toInt() {
           if (intValue == null) {
               fixupInteger();
           }
           return intValue.intValue();
       }

       private void fixupString() {
           stringValue = intValue.toString();
       }

       private void fixupInteger() {
           intValue = Integer.parseInt(stringValue);
       }
    }