使用str_replace()
去除点并不过分。
$string_number = '1.512.523,55';
// NOTE: You don't really have to use floatval() here, it's just to prove that it's a legitimate float value.
$number = floatval(str_replace(',', '.', str_replace('.', '', $string_number)));
// At this point, $number is a "natural" float.
print $number;