When you declare one variable, the initial type is null, but the type can be changed by assign statement.
global $my_var;
echo gettype($my_var);
$my_var = new stdClass();
$my_var->name = 'test';
$my_var->city = 'china';
//$my_var['weather']= 'cold';
echo gettype($my_var);
var_dump($my_var);