Why does count(false) == 1 in PHP?

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Why does count(false) == 1 in PHP?
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If you have ever been caught out by doing if (count($var)) and wondered why this 
passes when a previous assignment failed and set this to false, the reason is 
actually quite simple. count() was designed to be used with arrays, and so values 
are always cast to an array internally before checking the number of elements. If 
you cast a boolean to an array it will be come an array with one element set to the 
value of the boolean. See:

jamiel@gentoo ~ $ php -a
Interactive shell

php > var_dump((array) false);
array(1) {
  [0]=>
  bool(false)
}

Note, NULL cannot be cast to an array so count(null) will still equal 0.

php > var_dump((array) null);
array(0) {
}

You shouldn't use count() as a comparison for an if statement unless you are sure you are dealing with an array.