php 5.3 - Using PHP 5.3 ?: operator

Just for completeness, another way to achieve it is to pull operator rank:

 $page = (int)$_GET["page"]  or  $page = 1;

Many people perceive this as unreadable however, though it's shorter than isset() constructs.

Or if you are using input objects or any other utility class:

 $page = $_GET->int->default("page", 1);