A more pretty/informative Var_dump alternative in PHP? [closed]

Answer 1

Those fancy libraries are great ... except the overhead. If you want a simple, pretty var_dump that takes infinite parameters, try my function. It adds some simple HTML. Data attributes are added too, if you use HTML5, lower versions will just ignore them, but makes it easy to open element in browser console and get a little more info if what you see on screen is not enough.

The layout is very simple, no overhead. Provides a ton of info for each parameter including things like gettype and even class name for Object dumps (including XML). It's tried and true, I've been using it for years.

function preDump() {    //  use string "noEcho" to just get a string return only
    $args = func_get_args();
    $doEcho = TRUE; $sb;
    if ($args) {
        $sb = '<div style="margin: 1em 0;"><fieldset style="display:inline-block;padding:0em 3em 1em 1em;"><legend><b>preDump: '.count($args).' Parameters Found.</b></legend>';
        foreach (func_get_args() as $arg) {
            if (gettype($arg) == 'string') if ($arg == 'noEcho') { $doEcho = FALSE; $sb = preg_replace('/(preDump: )[0-9]+/', 'preDump: '.(count($args)-1), $sb); continue; }
            $sb .= '<pre data-type="'.gettype($arg).'"';
            switch (gettype($arg)) {
                case "boolean":
                case "integer":
                    $sb .= ' data-dump="json_encode"><p style="border-bottom:1px solid;margin:0;padding:0 0 0 1em;"><b>gettype('.gettype($arg).')</b></p><p>';
                    $sb .= json_encode($arg);
                    break;
                case "string":
                    $sb .= ' data-dump="echo"><p style="border-bottom:1px solid;margin:0;padding:0 0 0 1em;"><b>gettype('.gettype($arg).')</b></p><p>';
                    $sb .= $arg;
                    break;
                default:
                    $sb .= ' data-dump="var_dump"';
                    if (is_object($arg)) $sb .= 'data-class="'.get_class($arg).'"';
                    $sb .= '><p style="border-bottom:1px solid;margin:0;padding:0 0 0 1em;"><b>gettype('.gettype($arg).')';
                    if (is_object($arg)) $sb .= ' ['.get_class($arg).']';
                    $sb .= '</b></p><p>';
                    ob_start();
                    var_dump($arg);
                    $sb .= ob_get_clean();
                    if (ob_get_length()) ob_end_clean();
            }
            $sb .= '</p></pre>';
        }
        $sb .= '</fieldset></div>';
    }
    else {
        $sb = '<div style="margin: 1em 0;"><fieldset style="display:inline-block;"><legend><b>preDump: [ERROR]</b></legend><h3>No Parameters Found</h3></fieldset></div>';
    }
    if ($doEcho) echo($sb);
    return $sb;
}

And If you use Codeigniter, add it too your CI EXTREMELY SIMPLY. First, go to application/config/autoload.php and make sure the helper 'string' is on.

$autoload['helper'] = array( 'string' ); 

Then simply go create a file named MY_string_helper.php in application/helpers and simple insert the function in a typical if statement for existence check.

<?php  if (!defined('BASEPATH')) exit('No direct script access allowed');
    if (!function_exists('preDump')) {
        function preDump() {
            ...
        }
    }
//  DON'T CLOSE PHP

---

|OR|, if you want to take it a different direction.

The following snippet is the same as above, except will show your variables in the browser console. This can sometimes make it easier to debug sql object calls and other array and object calls where you're missing the key name or whatever.

function consoleDump() {    //  use string "noEcho" to just get a string return only
    $args = func_get_args();
    $doEcho = TRUE; $sb;
    if ($args) {
        $sb = '<script type="text/javascript">console.log("<" + new Array('.(count($args) < 10 ? '49': '48').').join("-") + "[consoleDump: '.count($args).' items]" + new Array(50).join("-") + ">"); console.log([';

        foreach (func_get_args() as $i => $arg) {
            if (gettype($arg) == 'string') if ($arg == 'noEcho') { $doEcho = FALSE; $sb = preg_replace('/(consoleDump: )[0-9]+/', 'consoleDump: '.(count($args)-1), $sb); continue; }
            $sb .= '{ "type": "'.gettype($arg).'", ';
            switch (gettype($arg)) {
                case "boolean":
                case "integer":
                case "string":
                    $sb .= '"value": '.json_encode($arg);
                    break;
                default:
                    $sb .= '"value": '.json_encode($arg);
                    if (is_object($arg) || is_array($arg)) $sb .= ', "count": '.json_encode(count((array)$arg));
                    if (is_object($arg)) $sb .= ', "objectClass": "'.get_class($arg).'"';
            }
            $sb .= '}';
            if ($i < count($args)-1) $sb .= ', ';
        }
        $sb .= ']); console.log("<" + new Array(120).join("-") + ">"); </script>';
    }
    else {
        $sb = '<script type="text/javascript">console.log("<" + new Array(120).join("-") + ">");console.log("consoleDump: [ERROR] No Parameters Found");console.log("<" + new Array(120).join("-") + ">");</script>';
    }
    if ($doEcho) echo($sb);
    return $sb;
}

Works with everything!

consoleDump($simpXMLvar, $_SESSION, TRUE, NULL, array( 'one' => 'bob', 'two' => 'bill' ), (object)array( 'one' => 'bob', 'two' => 'bill' ));


<------------------------------------------------[consoleDump: 6 items]------------------------------------------------->
[Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object] 
// This drops down to show your variables in JS objects, like:
    0: Object
        count: 4
        objectClass: "SimpleXMLElement"
        type: "object"
        value: Object
        __proto__: Object
        // ...etc...
<-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> 

Answer 2

My preferred is debug from https://github.com/hazardland/debug.php which is library with containing only single function named as debug (You can just copy that function in your project or in your library). Typical debug() html output looks like this:

But you can output data as a plain text with same function also (with 4 space indented tabs) like this (and even log it in file if needed):

string : "Test string"
boolean : true
integer : 17
float : 9.99
array (array)
    bob : "alice"
    1 : 5
    2 : 1.4
object (test2)
    another (test3)
        string1 : "3d level"
        string2 : "123"
        complicated (test4)
            enough : "Level 4"

Answer 3

Mine , is a more simpler , for me I don't have a lot of knowledge/time to change infrastructure install xdebug , etc etc.

And in other cases, well you don't need much for a simple WP website for example

So I use:

highlight_string("\n<?" . var_export($var, true) . "?>\n");

that really help me a lot.

but because I prefer the DevConsole Environment I use this awesome but simple function:

https://codeinphp.github.io/post/outputting-php-to-browser-console/

Little tweak:

<?php 

/**
 * Logs messages/variables/data to browser console from within php
 *
 * @param $name: message to be shown for optional data/vars
 * @param $data: variable (scalar/mixed) arrays/objects, etc to be logged
 * @param $jsEval: whether to apply JS eval() to arrays/objects
 *
 * @return none
 * @author Sarfraz
 */
function logConsole($name, $data = NULL, $jsEval = FALSE)
{
     if (! $name) return false;

     $isevaled = false;
     $type = ($data || gettype($data)) ? 'Type: ' . gettype($data) : '';

     if ($jsEval && (is_array($data) || is_object($data)))
     {
          $data = 'eval(' . preg_replace('#[\s\r\n\t\0\x0B]+#', '', json_encode($data)) . ')';
          $isevaled = true;
     }
     else
     {
          $data = json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT | JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES);
     }

     # sanitalize
     $data = $data ? $data : '';
     $search_array = array("#'#", '#""#', "#''#", "#\n#", "#\r\n#");
     $replace_array = array('"', '', '', '\\n', '\\n');
     $data = preg_replace($search_array,  $replace_array, $data);
     $data = ltrim(rtrim($data, '"'), '"');
     $data = $isevaled ? $data : ($data[0] === "'") ? $data : "'" . $data . "'";

$js = <<<JSCODE
\n<script>
// fallback - to deal with IE (or browsers that don't have console)
if (! window.console) console = {};
console.log = console.log || function(name, data){};
// end of fallback

console.log('===== PHP Dump =====');
console.log('$name');
console.log('$type');
console.log($data);
console.log('===== / PHP Dump =====');
console.log('\\n');
</script>
JSCODE;

     echo $js;
} # end logConsole

Answer 4

Tracy has a beautiful collapsable output using dump() function.

Answer 5

Another option is to

composer require symfony/var-dumper --save-dev

Then in your file you just use dump($var) and you'll end up with an output like so

Answer 6

I love Firephp plus firebug

• It writes the logging information out using headers, so it doesn't break AJAX.
• Gives you a very nice graphical representation of the variables/objects you log
• Can display file name and line number where each log statement occurs
• Easy to use in your project, either with a procedural or object-oriented API