Try var_export

You may want to check out var_export — while it doesn't provide the same output as var_dump it does provide a second $return parameter which will cause it to return its output rather than print it:

$debug = var_export($my_var, true);

Why?

I prefer this one-liner to using ob_start and ob_get_clean(). I also find that the output is a little easier to read, since it's just PHP code.

The difference between var_dump and var_export is that var_export returns a "parsable string representation of a variable" while var_dump simply dumps information about a variable. What this means in practice is that var_export gives you valid PHP code (but may not give you quite as much information about the variable, especially if you're working with resources).

Demo:

$demo = array(    "bool" => false,    "int" => 1,    "float" => 3.14,    "string" => "hello world",    "array" => array(),    "object" => new stdClass(),    "resource" => tmpfile(),    "null" => null,);// var_export -- nice, one-liner$debug_export = var_export($demo, true);// var_dumpob_start();var_dump($demo);$debug_dump = ob_get_clean();// print_r -- included for completeness, though not recommended$debug_printr = print_r($demo, true);

The difference in output:

var_export ($debug_export in above example):

 array (  'bool' => false,  'int' => 1,  'float' => 3.1400000000000001,  'string' => 'hello world',  'array' =>   array (  ),  'object' =>   stdClass::__set_state(array(  )),  'resource' => NULL, // Note that this resource pointer is now NULL  'null' => NULL,)

var_dump ($debug_dump in above example):

 array(8) {  ["bool"]=>  bool(false)  ["int"]=>  int(1)  ["float"]=>  float(3.14)  ["string"]=>  string(11) "hello world"  ["array"]=>  array(0) {  }  ["object"]=>  object(stdClass)#1 (0) {  }  ["resource"]=>  resource(4) of type (stream)  ["null"]=>  NULL}

print_r ($debug_printr in above example):

Array(    [bool] =>     [int] => 1    [float] => 3.14    [string] => hello world    [array] => Array        (        )    [object] => stdClass Object        (        )    [resource] => Resource id #4    [null] => )

Caveat: var_export does not handle circular references

If you're trying to dump a variable with circular references, calling var_export will result in a PHP warning:

 $circular = array(); $circular['self'] =& $circular; var_export($circular);

Results in:

 Warning: var_export does not handle circular references in example.php on line 3 array (   'self' =>    array (     'self' => NULL,   ), )

Both var_dump and print_r, on the other hand, will output the string *RECURSION* when encountering circular references.

Use output buffering:

<?phpob_start();var_dump($someVar);$result = ob_get_clean();?>

You could also do this:

$dump = print_r($variable, true);