You just need to (typecast)
to the desired type
<?php
$string = "0.00050722";
$float = (float) $string;
$float2 = $string + 0.0; //this works as well.
$floatval = floatval($string);
$double = (double) $string;
// TEST
printf("string: %s - %d<br>", $string, is_float ($string));
printf("float : %g - %d<br>", $float, is_float ($float));
printf("float2: %g - %d<br>", $float2, is_float ($float2));
printf("floatval: %g - %d<br>", $floatval, is_float($floatval));
printf("double: %g - %d<br>", $string, is_double ($double));
?>
Should result in:
string: 0.00050722 - 0
float : 0.00050722 - 1
float2: 0.00050722 - 1
floatval: 0.00050722 - 1
double: 0.00050722 - 1
Notice that concatenation also works.