Make var dump look pretty

Question

I have a simple   GET   query var set for showing testing data when pulling down queries from the DB    lt  php if   GET  test       gt     lt div id  test  style  padding  24px  background   fff  text-align  center   gt         lt table gt         lt tr style  font-weight  bold   gt  lt td gt MLS lt  td gt  lt  tr gt         lt tr gt  lt td gt  lt  php echo KEY    gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt         lt tr style  font-weight  bold   gt  lt td gt QUERY lt  td gt  lt  tr gt         lt tr gt  lt td gt  lt  php echo  data q    gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt         lt tr style  font-weight  bold   gt  lt td gt DATA lt  td gt  lt  tr gt         lt tr gt  lt td gt  lt  php var dump  data     gt  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt       lt  table gt       lt  div gt   lt  php endif    gt    When I do var dump  as expected it s this big array string that is all smushed together   Is there a way to add in line breaks at least for this or display the var dump in a way that s more readable  I m open to jQuery suggestions on manipulating the string after it s posted

User · Accepted Answer

I really love var export     If you like copy paste-able code  try   echo   lt pre gt     var export  data  true      lt  pre gt      Or even something like this for color syntax highlighting   highlight string   lt  php n  data   n    var export  data  true       n  gt       You can do the same with print r     For var dump   you would just need to add the  lt pre gt  tags   echo   lt pre gt    var dump  data   echo   lt  pre gt

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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   lt  php n     var export  data  true       gt       echo   lt script gt document getElementsByTagName  code   0  getElementsByTagName  span   1  remove    document getElementsByTagName  code   0  getElementsByTagName  span   document getElementsByTagName  code   0  getElementsByTagName  span   length - 1  remove      lt  script gt      die        Result before     Result After     Now we don t have php starting and closing tag

User · Answer

Use preformatted HTML element   echo   lt pre gt    var dump  data   echo   lt  pre gt

User · Answer

Here s an alternative  actively maintained open source var dump on steroids  https   github com kint-php kint It works with zero set up and has more features than Xdebug s var dump  Example which bypasses the dumped object size limit on the fly with Kint       require  kint phar         d   variable       append     to the dump call  Here s a screenshot

User · Answer

I wrote a function  debug display  which can print  arrays  objects  and file info in pretty way    lt  php function debug display  var  show   false        if  show     dis    block    else    dis    none         ob start        echo   lt div style  display    dis   text-align left  direction ltr   gt  lt b gt Idea Debug Method    lt  b gt           lt pre gt        if is bool  var             echo  var     TRUE    Boolean TRUE      Boolean FALSE         else           if FALSE    empty  var   amp  amp   var     NULL  amp  amp   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   lt  pre gt       lt  div gt         output   ob get contents        ob end clean        echo  output      unset  output

User · Answer

You could use this one debugVar   instead of var dump    Check out  https   github com E1NSER php-debug-function

User · Answer

Try xdebug extension for php   Example    lt  php var dump   SERVER     gt    Outputs

User · Answer

There is a Symfony package for this  https   symfony com doc current components var dumper html

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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          lt style gt             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                   lt  style gt                    Content                 echo   lt pre style  background  background  color  color  padding 10px 20px  border 2px inset  color  gt        echo      lt h2 gt  title lt  h2 gt                var dump  data        echo   lt  pre gt

User · Answer

Use  echo nl2br var dump       This should work

User · Answer

function var view  var         ini set  highlight keyword     a50000   font-weight  bolder        ini set  highlight string     5825b6  font-weight  lighter           ob start        highlight string   lt  php n    var export  var  true       gt          highlighted output   ob get clean          highlighted output   str replace     amp lt  php     amp gt           highlighted output         echo  highlighted output      die

User · Answer

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

[php] Make var_dump look pretty

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