Make var_dump look pretty

Question 1

I really love var_export(). If you like copy/paste-able code, try:

echo '<pre>' . var_export($data, true) . '</pre>';

Or even something like this for color syntax highlighting:

highlight_string("<?php\n\$data =\n" . var_export($data, true) . ";\n?>");

Reusable function:

function highlight_array($array, $name = 'var') {
    highlight_string("<?php\n\$$name =\n" . var_export($array, true) . ";\n?>");
}

You can do the same with print_r(). For var_dump() you would just need to add the <pre> tags:

echo '<pre>';
var_dump($data);
echo '</pre>';

Question 2

Try xdebug extension for php.

Example:

<?php var_dump($_SERVER); ?>

Outputs:

enter image description here

Question 3

Use preformatted HTML element

    echo '<pre>';
        var_dump($data);
    echo '</pre>';

Question 4

I have make an addition to @AbraCadaver answers. I have included a javascript script which will delete php starting and closing tag. We will have clean more pretty dump.

May be somebody like this too.

function dd($data){
  highlight_string("<?php\n " . var_export($data, true) . "?>");
  echo '<script>document.getElementsByTagName("code")[0].getElementsByTagName("span")[1].remove() ;document.getElementsByTagName("code")[0].getElementsByTagName("span")[document.getElementsByTagName("code")[0].getElementsByTagName("span").length - 1].remove() ; </script>';
  die();
}

Result before:

Result After:

Now we don't have php starting and closing tag

Question 5

I don't seem to have enough rep to close this as a duplicate, but it is one if someone else can do that. I posted the same thing over at A more pretty/informative Var_dump alternative in PHP? but for the sake of saving time, I'll copy/paste it here too:

I had to add another answer here because I didn't really want to go through the steps in the other solutions. It is extremely simple and requires no extensions, includes etc and is what I prefer. It's very easy and very fast.

First just json_encode the variable in question:

echo json_encode($theResult);

Copy the result you get into the JSON Editor at http://jsoneditoronline.org/ just copy it into the left side pane, click Copy > and it pretty prints the JSON in a really nice tree format.

To each their own, but hopefully this helps some others have one more nice option! :)

Question 6

If it's "all smushed together" you can often give the ol' "view source code" a try. Sometimes the dumps, messages and exceptions seem like they're just one long string when it turns out that the line breaks simply don't show. Especially XML trees.

Alternatively, I've once created a small little tool called InteractiveVarDump for this very purpose. It certainly has its limits but it can also be very convenient sometimes. Even though it was designed with PHP 5 in mind.

Question 7

Here's an alternative, actively maintained open source var_dump on steroids:

https://github.com/php-sage/sage

It works with zero set up and is more useable than Xdebug's var_dump and symfony/var-dumper.

Example which bypasses the dumped object size limit on the fly with Kint:

     require 'sage.phar';
     +d( $variable ); // append `+` to the dump call

Here's a screenshot:

kint

Question 8

The best what and easiest way to get nice var_dump is use xDebug (must have for any php dev) Debian way install

In console: apt-get install php-xdebug after that you should open php.ini (depends on which stack you use) for it's /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini

Search for display_errors

set same -> display_errors = On

Check html_errors in same file a little bit below, it's also must be On

Save and exit

After open /etc/php/7.0/fpm/conf.d/20-xdebug.ini

And add to the end: ``` xdebug.cli_color=1

``` Save and exit.

A lot other available option and documentation for xdebug can be founded here.

https://xdebug.org/docs/

Good luck and Have Fun !!!

Result

Question 9

You could use this one debugVar() instead of var_dump()

Check out: https://github.com/E1NSER/php-debug-function

Question 10

Here is my function to have a pretty var_dump. Combined with Xdebug, it helps a lot to have a better view of what we are dumping.

I improved a bit the display of Xdebug (give some space around, separator between values, wrap long variables, etc).

When you call the function, you can set a title, a background, a text color to distinguish all your var_dump in a page.

Or not ;)

/**
 * Pretty var_dump 
 * Possibility to set a title, a background-color and a text color
 */ 
function dump($data, $title="", $background="#EEEEEE", $color="#000000"){

    //=== Style  
    echo "  
    <style>
        /* Styling pre tag */
        pre {
            padding:10px 20px;
            white-space: pre-wrap;
            white-space: -moz-pre-wrap;
            white-space: -pre-wrap;
            white-space: -o-pre-wrap;
            word-wrap: break-word;
        }

        /* ===========================
        == To use with XDEBUG 
        =========================== */
        /* Source file */
        pre small:nth-child(1) {
            font-weight: bold;
            font-size: 14px;
            color: #CC0000;
        }
        pre small:nth-child(1)::after {
            content: '';
            position: relative;
            width: 100%;
            height: 20px;
            left: 0;
            display: block;
            clear: both;
        }

        /* Separator */
        pre i::after{
            content: '';
            position: relative;
            width: 100%;
            height: 15px;
            left: 0;
            display: block;
            clear: both;
            border-bottom: 1px solid grey;
        }  
    </style>
    ";

    //=== Content            
    echo "<pre style='background:$background; color:$color; padding:10px 20px; border:2px inset $color'>";
    echo    "<h2>$title</h2>";
            var_dump($data); 
    echo "</pre>";

}

Question 11

function var_view($var)
{

    ini_set("highlight.keyword", "#a50000;  font-weight: bolder");
    ini_set("highlight.string", "#5825b6; font-weight: lighter; ");

    ob_start();
    highlight_string("<?php\n" . var_export($var, true) . "?>");
    $highlighted_output = ob_get_clean();

    $highlighted_output = str_replace( ["&lt;?php","?&gt;"] , '', $highlighted_output );

    echo $highlighted_output;
    die();
}

Question 12

There is a Symfony package for this: https://symfony.com/doc/current/components/var_dumper.html.

Question 13

Here is a function I made for showing arrays in a nice way:

function nicevar($var,$title=''){
    if(is_array($var)){
        $table = '<table>';
        if($title){
            $table .= '<tr><th colspan="20">'.$title.'</th></tr>';
        }
        foreach($var as $k => $v){
            $table .= '<tr>';
                $table .= '<td><b>'.$k.'</b></td>';
                $table .= '<td>';
                    if(is_array($v)){
                        $table .= nicevar($v);
                    }else{
                        $table .=  $v;
                    }
                $table .= '</td>';
            $table .= '</tr>';
        }
        $table .= '</table>';
    }else{
        $table = $var;
    }
    return $table;  
}

usage:

echo nicevar($_SESSION['debug'],'Structure of debug');

use this styling to make it nice:

<style>
body {
        padding: 30px;
}

table {
    margin: 5px;
}
table, th, td {
  border: 1px solid black;
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
th {
    background-color: #9fff96;
}
th, td {
  padding: 2px;
  border-spacing: 2px;
}
</style>

Question 14

in CI4, it's simpler to make the the output prettier:

dd($this->request);

here is the result

Question 15

I wrote a function (debug_display) which can print, arrays, objects, and file info in pretty way.

<?php
function debug_display($var,$show = false) {
    if($show) { $dis = 'block'; }else { $dis = 'none'; }
    ob_start();
    echo '<div style="display:'.$dis.';text-align:left; direction:ltr;"><b>Idea Debug Method : </b>
        <pre>';
    if(is_bool($var)) {
        echo $var === TRUE ? 'Boolean(TRUE)' : 'Boolean(FALSE)';
    }else {
        if(FALSE == empty($var) && $var !== NULL && $var != '0') {
            if(is_array($var)) {
                echo "Number of Indexes: " . count($var) . "\n";
                print_r($var);
            } elseif(is_object($var)) {
                print_r($var);
            } elseif(@is_file($var)){
                $stat = stat($var);
                $perm = substr(sprintf('%o',$stat['mode']), -4);
                $accesstime = gmdate('Y/m/d H:i:s', $stat['atime']);
                $modification = gmdate('Y/m/d H:i:s', $stat['mtime']);
                $change = gmdate('Y/m/d H:i:s', $stat['ctime']);
                echo "
    file path : $var
    file size : {$stat['size']} Byte
    device number : {$stat['dev']}
    permission : {$perm}
    last access time was : {$accesstime}
    last modified time was : {$modification}
    last change time was : {$change}
    ";
            }elseif(is_string($var)) {
                print_r(htmlentities(str_replace("\t", '  ', $var)));
            }  else {
                print_r($var);
            }
        }else {
            echo 'Undefined';
        }
    }
    echo '</pre>
    </div>';
    $output = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();
    echo $output;
    unset($output);
}

Question 16

Use

echo nl2br(var_dump());

This should work ^^