Star *¶

* is a character, used in various situations:

multiplication: 3 * 2 == 6
power: 3 ** 2 == 3 * 3 == 9
with slash, /* is a multi line comment: /* */
with double star and a slash, /** is a phpdoc comment: /** */.
as a wildcard in glob() calls
as a wildcard in fnmatch() calls
as a wildcard for all columns in SQL queries: SELECT * FROM table
as a quantifier in regex: 0 or more, i.e. /a*/
as part of a multiline comment with /** */ and /* */.

<?php

file_get_contents('/tmp/test.txt');

echo 2 * 3; // 6
echo 2 ** 3; // *

/*
 A multiline comment
*/

?>

Related : Multiplication, Comments, Exponential, Regular Expression, Structured Query Language (SQL), glob(), fnmatch()