var_export

Description

var_export() gets structured information about the given variable. It is similar to var_dump() with one exception: the returned representation is valid PHP code.

Parameters

Return Values

Returns the variable representation when the return parameter is used and evaluates to TRUE. Otherwise, this function will return NULL.

ChangeLog

Examples

Example 1. var_export() Examples <?php $a = array (1, 2, array ("a", "b", "c")); var_export($a); ?> The above example will output: array ( 0 => 1, 1 => 2, 2 => array ( 0 => 'a', 1 => 'b', 2 => 'c', ), ) <?php $b = 3.1; $v = var_export($b, true); echo $v; ?> The above example will output: 3.1

Example 2. Exporting classes since PHP 5.1.0 <?php class A { public $var; } $a = new A; $a->var = 5; var_export($a); ?> The above example will output: A::__set_state(array( 'var' => 5, ))

Example 3. Using __set_state (since PHP 5.1.0) <?php class A {     public $var1;     public $var2;     public static function __set_state($an_array)     {         $obj = new A;         $obj->var1 = $an_array['var1'];         $obj->var2 = $an_array['var2'];         return $obj;     } } $a = new A; $a->var1 = 5; $a->var2 = 'foo'; eval('$b = ' . var_export($a, true) . ';'); // $b = A::__set_state(array(                                             //    'var1' => 5,                                             //    'var2' => 'foo',                                             // )); var_dump($b); ?> The above example will output: object(A)#2 (2) { ["var1"]=> int(5) ["var2"]=> string(3) "foo" }

Notes

See Also