How do PHP's string comparison functions and operators handle edge cases involving numeric looking strings, and why is strict, type aware comparison important when working with strings that could be misinterpreted as numbers?

Comparing strings in PHP can produce surprising results when the strings look like numbers, since PHP's loose comparison operators may automatically convert both operands to numbers before comparing them, meaning two visually different strings could unexpectedly be treated as equal, and using the identical operator to perform a strict, type aware comparison, or explicitly using a function like strcmp for a straightforward literal character by character comparison, avoids these surprising type juggling pitfalls, particularly important when comparing values like security tokens, hashes, or user submitted identifiers where an unintended loose match could actually introduce a security vulnerability.

var_dump('0' == 'abc');       // Older PHP versions: surprising results
var_dump('100' === '1e2');    // false, strict comparison avoids confusion
var_dump(hash_equals($expectedToken, $suppliedToken));