version_compare() comparing 8.5 and 8.5.0 doesn't work

[staabm]

Description

The following code:

<?php

var_dump(version_compare("8.5.0", "8.5.0", "<="));
var_dump(version_compare("8.5.0", "8.5", "<="));

Resulted in this output:

bool(true)
bool(false)

But I expected this output instead:

bool(true)
bool(true)

see https://3v4l.org/8UfAW#veol

PHP Version

PHP 8.4.15 (cli) (built: Nov 18 2025 17:26:05) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Built by Homebrew
Zend Engine v4.4.15, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies

Operating System

macOS

[TimWolla]

But I expected this output instead:

Why?

[staabm]

Because I thought 8.5.0 and 8.5 are equal and therefore should match <=

[TimWolla]

I thought 8.5.0 and 8.5 are equal

Those versions look different to me.

---

Documentation is not perfectly clear, but states:

This way not only versions with different levels like '4.1' and '4.1.2' can be compared but also any PHP specific version containing development state.

As with things like strcmp(), the “end” compares lower than anything else. For version_compare() this is useful in cases like version_compare($version, '8.5', '<') which will return true for any 8.4 and false for any 8.5.