Is there a pretty print for PHP?

Aaron_Lee_8351 0
Viewed 297484

I'm fixing some PHP scripts and I'm missing ruby's pretty printer. i.e.

require 'pp'
arr = {:one => 1}
pp arr

will output {:one => 1}. This even works with fairly complex objects and makes digging into an unknown script much easier. Is there some way to duplicate this functionality in PHP?

pretty-print php
31 Answers

This is what I use to print my arrays:

<pre>
    <?php
        print_r($your_array);
    ?>
</pre>

The magic comes with the pre tag.

user_8542220

Both print_r() and var_dump() will output visual representations of objects within PHP.

$arr = array('one' => 1);
print_r($arr);
var_dump($arr);
Andrew_Moore_262100

For simplicity, print_r() and var_dump() can't be beat. If you want something a little fancier or are dealing with large lists and/or deeply nested data, Krumo will make your life much easier - it provides you with a nicely formatted collapsing/expanding display.

Sean_McSomething_394130
user_751670 
error_log(print_r($variable,true));

to send to syslog or eventlog for windows

user_1043810
user_719640

a one-liner that will give you the rough equivalent of "viewing source" to see array contents:

assumes php 4.3.0+:

echo nl2br(str_replace(' ', ' ', print_r($_SERVER, true)));

user_2589210

Since I found this via google searching for how to format json to make it more readable for troubleshooting.

ob_start() ;  print_r( $json ); $ob_out=ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); echo "\$json".str_replace( '}', "}\n", $ob_out );
user_2903370

If your server objects to you changing headers (to plain text) after some have been sent, or if you don't want to change your code, just "view source" from your browser--your text editor (even notepad) will process new lines better than your browser, and will turn a jumbled mess:

Array ( [root] => 1 [sub1] => Array ( ) [sub2] => Array ( ) [sub3] => Array ( ) [sub4] => Array ( ) ...

into a properly tabbed representation:

[root] => 1
  [sub1] => Array
      (
      )

  [sub2] => Array
      (
      )

  [sub3] => Array
      (
      )

  [sub4] => Array
      (
      )...
user_12215370
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