If your equations stay pretty simple you can make a function similar to the following:
function calcString($str)
{
$patten = '/[\*\/\+-]/';
preg_match($patten,$str, $operator);
$arr = preg_split($patten,$str);
switch($operator[0]){
case '-':
return $arr[0] - $arr[1];
case '+':
return $arr[0] + $arr[1];
case '*':
return $arr[0] * $arr[1];
case '/':
return $arr[0] / $arr[1];
}
}
$num = "10+2";
echo calcString($num); // Output = 12
// Or
$num = "10-2";
echo calcString($num); // Output = 8
// Or
$num = "10*2";
echo calcString($num); // Output = 20
// Or
$num = "10/2";
echo calcString($num); // Output = 5
Of course you could put the function is some kind of helper class.