The str argument is a string, represented by an array of characters, containing the characters of a signed integer number. The string must be null-terminated. When atoi encounters a string with no numerical sequence, it returns zero (0). If the string holds a valid sequence of digits that represents the number 0, it also returns a 0, making it impossible to tell from the return value alone whether the string holds a valid number or not. The newer function strtol does not have this deficiency.
PHP is C based
C traditionally used atoi
atoi("x") is 0 ergo : atoi("x") === 0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoi
The str argument is a string, represented by an array of characters, containing the characters of a signed integer number. The string must be null-terminated. When atoi encounters a string with no numerical sequence, it returns zero (0). If the string holds a valid sequence of digits that represents the number 0, it also returns a 0, making it impossible to tell from the return value alone whether the string holds a valid number or not. The newer function strtol does not have this deficiency.