PHP: var_dump - Manual

<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>PHP: var_dump - Manual </title> <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" sizes="any" href="https://www.php.net/favicon.svg?v=2"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="196x196" href="https://www.php.net/favicon-196x196.png?v=2"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="https://www.php.net/favicon-32x32.png?v=2"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="https://www.php.net/favicon-16x16.png?v=2"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://www.php.net/favicon.ico?v=2"> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="http://php.net/phpnetimprovedsearch.src" title="Add PHP.net search"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://www.php.net/releases/feed.php" title="PHP Release feed"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" 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Arrays and objects are explored recursively with values indented to show structure. All public, private and protected properties of objects will be returned in the output unless the object implements a <a href="language.oop5.magic.php#language.oop5.magic.debuginfo" class="link">__debugInfo()</a> method. <div class="tip">TipAs with anything that outputs its result directly to the browser, the <a href="book.outcontrol.php" class="link">output-control functions</a> can be used to capture the output of this function, and save it in a <a href="language.types.string.php" class="type string">string</a> (for example).</div> </div> <div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.var-dump-parameters"> <h3 class="title">Parameters</h3> <dl> <dt><code class="parameter">value</code></dt> <dd> The expression to dump. </dd> <dt><code class="parameter">values</code></dt> <dd> Further expressions to dump. </dd> </dl> </div> <div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.var-dump-returnvalues"> <h3 class="title">Return Values</h3> No value is returned. </div> <div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.var-dump-examples"> <h3 class="title">Examples</h3> <div class="example" id="example-5577"> Example #1 var_dump() example <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><?php $a = array(1, 2, array("a", "b", "c")); var_dump($a); ?></code></div> </div> <div class="example-contents">The above example will output:</div> <div class="example-contents screen"> <div class="examplescode"><pre class="examplescode">array(3) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(2) [2]=> array(3) { [0]=> string(1) "a" [1]=> string(1) "b" [2]=> string(1) "c" } }</pre> </div> </div> <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><?php $b = 3.1; $c = true; var_dump($b, $c); ?></code></div> </div> <div class="example-contents">The above example will output:</div> <div class="example-contents screen"> <div class="examplescode"><pre class="examplescode">float(3.1) bool(true)</pre> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.var-dump-seealso"> <h3 class="title">See Also</h3> <ul class="simplelist"> <li><a href="function.print-r.php" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">print_r()</a> - Prints human-readable information about a variable</li> <li><a href="function.debug-zval-dump.php" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">debug_zval_dump()</a> - Dumps a string representation of an internal zval structure to output</li> <li><a href="function.var-export.php" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">var_export()</a> - Outputs or returns a parsable string representation of a variable</li> <li><a href="language.oop5.magic.php#language.oop5.magic.debuginfo" class="link">__debugInfo()</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="contribute"> <h3 class="title">Found A Problem?</h3> <div> </div> <div class="edit-bug"> <a href="https://github.com/php/doc-base/blob/master/README.md" title="This will take you to our contribution guidelines on GitHub" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Learn How To Improve This Page</a> • <a href="https://github.com/php/doc-en/blob/master/reference/var/functions/var-dump.xml">Submit a Pull Request</a> • <a href="https://github.com/php/doc-en/issues/new?body=From%20manual%20page:%20https:%2F%2Fphp.net%2Ffunction.var-dump%0A%0A---">Report a Bug</a> </div> </div><section id="usernotes"> <div class="head"> <a href="/manual/add-note.php?sect=function.var-dump&repo=en&redirect=https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.var-dump.php">＋add a note</a> <h3 class="title">User Contributed Notes 16 notes</h3> </div><div id="allnotes"> <div class="note" id="82419"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu82419"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=82419&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd82419"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=82419&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V82419" title="68% like this..."> 153 </div> </div> <a href="#82419" class="name"> rich dot schu at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#82419"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2008-04-09 05:56">16 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom82419"> <div class="phpcode"><code>Keep in mind if you have xdebug installed it will limit the var_dump() output of array elements and object properties to 3 levels deep. To change the default, edit your xdebug.ini file and add the folllowing line: xdebug.var_display_max_depth=n More information here: <a href="http://www.xdebug.org/docs/display" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.xdebug.org/docs/display</a></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="51119"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu51119"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=51119&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd51119"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=51119&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V51119" title="74% like this..."> 133 </div> </div> <a href="#51119" class="name"> edwardzyang at thewritingpot dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#51119"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2005-03-20 02:06">20 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom51119"> <div class="phpcode"><code>If you're like me and uses var_dump whenever you're debugging, you might find these two "wrapper" functions helpful. This one automatically adds the PRE tags around the var_dump output so you get nice formatted arrays. <?php function var_dump_pre($mixed = null) { echo '<pre>'; var_dump($mixed); echo '</pre>'; return null; } ?> This one returns the value of var_dump instead of outputting it. <?php function var_dump_ret($mixed = null) { ob_start(); var_dump($mixed); $content = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); return $content; } ?> Fairly simple functions, but they're infinitely helpful (I use var_dump_pre() almost exclusively now).</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="116041"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu116041"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=116041&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd116041"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=116041&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V116041" title="60% like this..."> 35 </div> </div> <a href="#116041" class="name"> b dot bergloev at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#116041"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2014-10-31 11:45">10 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom116041"> <div class="phpcode"><code>I post a new var_dump function with colors and collapse features. It can also adapt to terminal output if you execute it from there. No need to wrap it in a pre tag to get it to work in browsers. <?php function dump_debug($input, $collapse=false) { $recursive = function($data, $level=0) use (&$recursive, $collapse) { global $argv; $isTerminal = isset($argv); if (!$isTerminal && $level == 0 && !defined("DUMP_DEBUG_SCRIPT")) { define("DUMP_DEBUG_SCRIPT", true); echo '<script language="Javascript">function toggleDisplay(id) {'; echo 'var state = document.getElementById("container"+id).style.display;'; echo 'document.getElementById("container"+id).style.display = state == "inline" ? "none" : "inline";'; echo 'document.getElementById("plus"+id).style.display = state == "inline" ? "inline" : "none";'; echo '}</script>'."\n"; } $type = !is_string($data) && is_callable($data) ? "Callable" : ucfirst(gettype($data)); $type_data = null; $type_color = null; $type_length = null; switch ($type) { case "String": $type_color = "green"; $type_length = strlen($data); $type_data = "\"" . htmlentities($data) . "\""; break; case "Double": case "Float": $type = "Float"; $type_color = "#0099c5"; $type_length = strlen($data); $type_data = htmlentities($data); break; case "Integer": $type_color = "red"; $type_length = strlen($data); $type_data = htmlentities($data); break; case "Boolean": $type_color = "#92008d"; $type_length = strlen($data); $type_data = $data ? "TRUE" : "FALSE"; break; case "NULL": $type_length = 0; break; case "Array": $type_length = count($data); } if (in_array($type, array("Object", "Array"))) { $notEmpty = false; foreach($data as $key => $value) { if (!$notEmpty) { $notEmpty = true; if ($isTerminal) { echo $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "")."\n"; } else { $id = substr(md5(rand().":".$key.":".$level), 0, 8); echo "<a href=\"javascript:toggleDisplay('". $id ."');\" style=\"text-decoration:none\">"; echo "" . $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "") . ""; echo "</a>"; echo ". $id ."\" style=\"display: " . ($collapse ? "inline" : "none") . ";\">&nbsp;&#10549;"; echo "<div id=\"container". $id ."\" style=\"display: " . ($collapse ? "" : "inline") . ";\">"; echo " "; } for ($i=0; $i <= $level; $i++) { echo $isTerminal ? "| " : "|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"; } echo $isTerminal ? "\n" : " "; } for ($i=0; $i <= $level; $i++) { echo $isTerminal ? "| " : "|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"; } echo $isTerminal ? "[" . $key . "] => " : "[" . $key . "]&nbsp;=>&nbsp;"; call_user_func($recursive, $value, $level+1); } if ($notEmpty) { for ($i=0; $i <= $level; $i++) { echo $isTerminal ? "| " : "|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"; } if (!$isTerminal) { echo "</div>"; } } else { echo $isTerminal ? $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "") . " " : "" . $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "") . "&nbsp;&nbsp;"; } } else { echo $isTerminal ? $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "") . " " : "" . $type . ($type_length !== null ? "(" . $type_length . ")" : "") . "&nbsp;&nbsp;"; if ($type_data != null) { echo $isTerminal ? $type_data : ". $type_color . "'>" . $type_data . ""; } } echo $isTerminal ? "\n" : " "; }; call_user_func($recursive, $input); } ?></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="49455"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu49455"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=49455&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd49455"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=49455&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V49455" title="56% like this..."> 15 </div> </div> <a href="#49455" class="name"> anon</a><a class="genanchor" href="#49455"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2005-01-28 06:31">20 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom49455"> <div class="phpcode"><code>var_dump(get_defined_vars()); will dump all defined variables to the browser.</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="105343"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu105343"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=105343&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd105343"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=105343&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V105343" title="55% like this..."> 6 </div> </div> <a href="#105343" class="name"> stlawson *AT* joyfulearthtech *DOT* com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#105343"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2011-08-10 09:31">13 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom105343"> <div class="phpcode"><code><?php /** * Better GI than print_r or var_dump -- but, unlike var_dump, you can only dump one variable. * Added htmlentities on the var content before echo, so you see what is really there, and not the mark-up. * * Also, now the output is encased within a div block that sets the background color, font style, and left-justifies it * so it is not at the mercy of ambient styles. * * Inspired from: PHP.net Contributions * Stolen from: [highstrike at gmail dot com] * Modified by: stlawson *AT* JoyfulEarthTech *DOT* com * * @param mixed $var -- variable to dump * @param string $var_name -- name of variable (optional) -- displayed in printout making it easier to sort out what variable is what in a complex output * @param string $indent -- used by internal recursive call (no known external value) * @param unknown_type $reference -- used by internal recursive call (no known external value) */ function do_dump(&$var, $var_name = NULL, $indent = NULL, $reference = NULL) { $do_dump_indent = "| &nbsp;&nbsp; "; $reference = $reference.$var_name; $keyvar = 'the_do_dump_recursion_protection_scheme'; $keyname = 'referenced_object_name'; // So this is always visible and always left justified and readable echo "<div style='text-align:left; background-color:white; font: 100% monospace; color:black;'>"; if (is_array($var) && isset($var[$keyvar])) { $real_var = &$var[$keyvar]; $real_name = &$var[$keyname]; $type = ucfirst(gettype($real_var)); echo "$indent$var_name $type = &amp;$real_name "; } else { $var = array($keyvar => $var, $keyname => $reference); $avar = &$var[$keyvar]; $type = ucfirst(gettype($avar)); if($type == "String") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "Integer") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "Double"){ $type_color = ""; $type = "Float"; } elseif($type == "Boolean") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "NULL") $type_color = ""; if(is_array($avar)) { $count = count($avar); echo "$indent" . ($var_name ? "$var_name => ":"") . "$type ($count) $indent( "; $keys = array_keys($avar); foreach($keys as $name) { $value = &$avar[$name]; do_dump($value, "['$name']", $indent.$do_dump_indent, $reference); } echo "$indent) "; } elseif(is_object($avar)) { echo "$indent$var_name $type $indent( "; foreach($avar as $name=>$value) do_dump($value, "$name", $indent.$do_dump_indent, $reference); echo "$indent) "; } elseif(is_int($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color".htmlentities($avar)." "; elseif(is_string($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color\"".htmlentities($avar)."\" "; elseif(is_float($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color".htmlentities($avar)." "; elseif(is_bool($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color".($avar == 1 ? "TRUE":"FALSE")." "; elseif(is_null($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") {$type_color}NULL "; else echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") ".htmlentities($avar)." "; $var = $var[$keyvar]; } echo "</div>"; } ?></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="77234"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu77234"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=77234&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd77234"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=77234&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V77234" title="54% like this..."> 8 </div> </div> <a href="#77234" class="name"> thriller dot ze at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#77234"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2007-08-21 01:49">17 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom77234"> <div class="phpcode"><code>As Bryan said, it is possible to capture var_dump() output to a string. But it's not quite exact if the dumped variable contains HTML code. You can use this instead: <?php echo '<pre>'; // This is for correct handling of newlines ob_start(); var_dump($var); $a=ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); echo htmlspecialchars($a,ENT_QUOTES); // Escape every HTML special chars (especially > and < ) echo '</pre>'; ?></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="88651"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu88651"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=88651&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd88651"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=88651&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V88651" title="54% like this..."> 5 </div> </div> <a href="#88651" class="name"> egorinsk at gmail com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#88651"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2009-02-02 04:08">16 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom88651"> <div class="phpcode"><code>Note that var_dump reset()'s array internal pointer!</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="80288"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu80288"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=80288&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd80288"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=80288&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V80288" title="54% like this..."> 4 </div> </div> <a href="#80288" class="name"> highstrike at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#80288"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2008-01-08 05:33">17 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom80288"> <div class="phpcode"><code>made 2 nifty functions based of what some people contributed here. Hope you find them usefull usage ... call for the dump function. EG: dump($array, "Array dump"); <?php //////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Function: dump // Inspired from: PHP.net Contributions // Description: Helps with php debugging function dump(&$var, $info = FALSE) { $scope = false; $prefix = 'unique'; $suffix = 'value'; if($scope) $vals = $scope; else $vals = $GLOBALS; $old = $var; $var = $new = $prefix.rand().$suffix; $vname = FALSE; foreach($vals as $key => $val) if($val === $new) $vname = $key; $var = $old; echo "<pre style='margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px; display: block; background: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 5px; font-size: 10px; line-height: 13px;'>"; if($info != FALSE) echo "$info: "; do_dump($var, '$'.$vname); echo "</pre>"; } //////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Function: do_dump // Inspired from: PHP.net Contributions // Description: Better GI than print_r or var_dump function do_dump(&$var, $var_name = NULL, $indent = NULL, $reference = NULL) { $do_dump_indent = "| &nbsp;&nbsp; "; $reference = $reference.$var_name; $keyvar = 'the_do_dump_recursion_protection_scheme'; $keyname = 'referenced_object_name'; if (is_array($var) && isset($var[$keyvar])) { $real_var = &$var[$keyvar]; $real_name = &$var[$keyname]; $type = ucfirst(gettype($real_var)); echo "$indent$var_name $type = &amp;$real_name "; } else { $var = array($keyvar => $var, $keyname => $reference); $avar = &$var[$keyvar]; $type = ucfirst(gettype($avar)); if($type == "String") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "Integer") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "Double"){ $type_color = ""; $type = "Float"; } elseif($type == "Boolean") $type_color = ""; elseif($type == "NULL") $type_color = ""; if(is_array($avar)) { $count = count($avar); echo "$indent" . ($var_name ? "$var_name => ":"") . "$type ($count) $indent( "; $keys = array_keys($avar); foreach($keys as $name) { $value = &$avar[$name]; do_dump($value, "['$name']", $indent.$do_dump_indent, $reference); } echo "$indent) "; } elseif(is_object($avar)) { echo "$indent$var_name $type $indent( "; foreach($avar as $name=>$value) do_dump($value, "$name", $indent.$do_dump_indent, $reference); echo "$indent) "; } elseif(is_int($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color$avar "; elseif(is_string($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color\"$avar\" "; elseif(is_float($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color$avar "; elseif(is_bool($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $type_color".($avar == 1 ? "TRUE":"FALSE")." "; elseif(is_null($avar)) echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") {$type_color}NULL "; else echo "$indent$var_name = $type(".strlen($avar).") $avar "; $var = $var[$keyvar]; } } ?></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="119618"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu119618"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=119618&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd119618"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=119618&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V119618" title="52% like this..."> 3 </div> </div> <a href="#119618" class="name"> Anonymous</a><a class="genanchor" href="#119618"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2016-07-18 06:27">8 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom119618"> <div class="phpcode"><code>Be careful this outputs to stdout stream (1) instead of the proper stderr stream (2).</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="76072"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu76072"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=76072&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd76072"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=76072&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V76072" title="53% like this..."> 5 </div> </div> <a href="#76072" class="name"> php at mikeboers dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#76072"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2007-06-28 01:08">17 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom76072"> <div class="phpcode"><code>Howdy! I am working on a pretty large project where I needed to dump a human readable form of whatever into the log files... and I thought var_export was too difficult to read. BigueNique at yahoo dot ca has a nice solution, although I needed to NOT modify whatever was being passed to dump. So borrowing heavily from BigueNique's (just reworked his function) and someone's idea over in the object cloning page, I came up with the following function. It makes a complete copy of whatever object you initially pass it, including all recursive definitions and outside objects references, then does the same thing as BigueNique's function. I also heavily reworked what it output, to suit my needs. <?php function var_log(&$varInput, $var_name='', $reference='', $method = '=', $sub = false) { static $output ; static $depth ; if ( $sub == false ) { $output = '' ; $depth = 0 ; $reference = $var_name ; $var = serialize( $varInput ) ; $var = unserialize( $var ) ; } else { ++$depth ; $var =& $varInput ; } // constants $nl = "\n" ; $block = 'a_big_recursion_protection_block'; $c = $depth ; $indent = '' ; while( $c -- > 0 ) { $indent .= '| ' ; } // if this has been parsed before if ( is_array($var) && isset($var[$block])) { $real =& $var[ $block ] ; $name =& $var[ 'name' ] ; $type = gettype( $real ) ; $output .= $indent.$var_name.' '.$method.'& '.($type=='array'?'Array':get_class($real)).' '.$name.$nl; // havent parsed this before } else { // insert recursion blocker $var = Array( $block => $var, 'name' => $reference ); $theVar =& $var[ $block ] ; // print it out $type = gettype( $theVar ) ; switch( $type ) { case 'array' : $output .= $indent . $var_name . ' '.$method.' Array ('.$nl; $keys=array_keys($theVar); foreach($keys as $name) { $value=&$theVar[$name]; var_log($value, $name, $reference.'["'.$name.'"]', '=', true); } $output .= $indent.')'.$nl; break ; case 'object' : $output .= $indent.$var_name.' = '.get_class($theVar).' {'.$nl; foreach($theVar as $name=>$value) { var_log($value, $name, $reference.'->'.$name, '->', true); } $output .= $indent.'}'.$nl; break ; case 'string' : $output .= $indent . $var_name . ' '.$method.' "'.$theVar.'"'.$nl; break ; default : $output .= $indent . $var_name . ' '.$method.' ('.$type.') '.$theVar.$nl; break ; } // $var=$var[$block]; } -- $depth ; if( $sub == false ) return $output ; } // var_log( $var, '$name' ) ; ?> Hope it works well for you!</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="96082"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu96082"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=96082&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd96082"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=96082&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V96082" title="53% like this..."> 3 </div> </div> <a href="#96082" class="name"> david at exposito dot mobi</a><a class="genanchor" href="#96082"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2010-02-07 11:36">15 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom96082"> <div class="phpcode"><code>If you want to save exactly the content of an array into a variable to save ir later for example, use this: <?php $xml = var_export($xml, true); ?> You'll have in your same variable the content readable, instead of written down or anything else</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="104580"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu104580"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=104580&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd104580"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=104580&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V104580" title="51% like this..."> 3 </div> </div> <a href="#104580" class="name"> kobrasrealm at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#104580"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2011-06-23 01:28">13 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom104580"> <div class="phpcode"><code>I wrote this dandy little function for using var_dump() on HTML documents so I don't have to view the source. <?php function htmldump($variable, $height="9em") { echo "<pre style=\"border: 1px solid #000; height: {$height}; overflow: auto; margin: 0.5em;\">"; var_dump($variable); echo "</pre>\n"; } ?> You can pass arguments like this: <?php $sql = mysql_query("SELECT id, name, value FROM table WHERE cond = 'value'"); $s = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql); // Dump variable containing the result of the MySQL query var_dump($s); ?> The second parameter lets you specify the height of the box. Default is 9em, but if you're expecting a huge output you'll probably want a higher value. <?php var_dump($s, "17em"); ?> Happy var_dumping.</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="77710"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu77710"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=77710&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd77710"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=77710&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V77710" title="51% like this..."> 1 </div> </div> <a href="#77710" class="name"> vladimir at pixeltomorrow dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#77710"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2007-09-10 12:45">17 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom77710"> <div class="phpcode"><code>You can also use the PEAR package available at <a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Var_Dump" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://pear.php.net/package/Var_Dump</a> which parses the variable content in a very pleasant manner, a lot more easier to "follow" than the built-in var_dump() function. Of course there are many others, but I prefer this one, because it's simply to use. Just add at the begining of your file: <?php require('Var_Dump.php'); // make sure the pear package path is set in php.ini Var_Dump::displayInit(array('display_mode' => 'HTML4_Text'), array('mode' => 'normal','offset' => 4)); ?> then, instead of simply using var_dump($foo), use: <?php Var_Dump::display($foo); ?> Read the documentation if you're looking for different output layouts. Cheers! Vladimir Ghetau</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="123887"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu123887"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=123887&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd123887"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=123887&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V123887" title="46% like this..."> -1 </div> </div> <a href="#123887" class="name"> fabien dot villepinte at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#123887"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2019-05-27 02:59">5 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom123887"> <div class="phpcode"><code>It's important to note that the output depends on the precision directive. <?php var_dump(10000000000000.5); // float(10000000000000) ini_set('precision',-1); var_dump(10000000000000.5); // float(10000000000000.5) ?></code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="103626"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu103626"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=103626&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd103626"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=103626&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V103626" title="46% like this..."> -3 </div> </div> <a href="#103626" class="name"> divinity76 at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#103626"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2011-04-23 06:53">13 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom103626"> <div class="phpcode"><code>a html-encoded var_dump <?php function htmlvardump(){ob_start(); $var = func_get_args(); call_user_func_array('var_dump', $var); echo htmentities(ob_get_clean());} ?> (creds: ekneuss / mOo @ irc.freenode.net/#php )</code></div> </div> </div> <div class="note" id="70084"> <div class="votes"> <div id="Vu70084"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=70084&page=function.var-dump&vote=up" title="Vote up!" class="usernotes-voteu">up</a> </div> <div id="Vd70084"> <a href="/manual/vote-note.php?id=70084&page=function.var-dump&vote=down" title="Vote down!" class="usernotes-voted">down</a> </div> <div class="tally" id="V70084" title="46% like this..."> -3 </div> </div> <a href="#70084" class="name"> jonbarnett at gmail dot com</a><a class="genanchor" href="#70084"> ¶</a><div class="date" title="2006-10-02 12:25">18 years ago</div> <div class="text" id="Hcom70084"> <div class="phpcode"><code>dumping objects that reference each other could lead to infinite recursion <?php $brother = new Sibling(); $sister = new Sibling(); $brother->sister = $sister; $sister->brother = $brother; var_dump($brother); /* dumps all of $brother's properties, including "sister", which dumps all of $sister's properties, including "brother", etc. */ ?></code></div> </div> </div></div> <div class="foot"><a 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