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.

<?php if($_GET['test']): ?>
  <div id="test" style="padding: 24px; background: #fff; text-align: center;">  
    <table>
      <tr style="font-weight: bold;"><td>MLS</td></tr>
      <tr><td><?php echo KEY; ?></td></tr>
      <tr style="font-weight: bold;"><td>QUERY</td></tr>
      <tr><td><?php echo $data_q; ?></td></tr>
      <tr style="font-weight: bold;"><td>DATA</td></tr>
      <tr><td><?php var_dump($data); ?></td></tr>
    </table>    
</div>
<?php endif; ?>

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.

Answer 1

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);
}

Answer 2

Use

echo nl2br(var_dump());

This should work ^^

Answer 3

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?>");

Answer 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

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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>";

}