There are functions in PHP that display structured information about a variable, be it an object, an array, a string, or any PHP data type at all. Some of these commonly used function are:
var_dump() functionprint_r() functionvar_export() function.You can click on the first two links to learn more about them from previous shots. In this shot, we’ll discuss the var_export() function.
The var_export() function has similarities with var_dump() because they both get structured information about variables. But where var_export() can return this information in a form that can be parsed by the PHP parser in computations, var_dump() cannot. In clearer terms, the return value of var_export() function can be used in further computations, unlike var_dump.
var_export($variable, $return = false)
＄variable: This is the variable, of any data type, whose value is to be returned or displayed.＄return: This is a Boolean parameter, which is false by default and is optional. If set as true, it causes the function to return the value of the variable that was passed but not display it.This function will return null if the ＄return parameter is not set as true, in which case the variable is displayed. If it is set as true, the function will return the structured representation of the variable and no screen display.
In the snippet below, two variables, ＄my_int and ＄my_array, are set and their values exported. In one of the var_export functions, the return parameter is not set — i.e., it defaults to false — and in the other, it is set as true. This causes the first function to have an output, while the second function, with its return set to true, gives no output. This can be seen in the output when we execute the code below.
<?php// an integer value$my_int =24;// an array value$my_array = array ("a", "b", "c");// exporting this valuesvar_export($my_array);echo "\n";// no display because return is set as truevar_export($my_int,true) ;?>
<?php// initialize an integer variable$my_int = 3.1;// store the output of var_export on the variable$value1 = var_export($my_int, true);// store the output of var_export on the variable$value2 = var_dump($my_int);// do some computation with the stored values and echoecho $value1 + 50;echo "\n";echo $value2 + 90;?>
In the code above, we have tried to clarify the difference between var_export and var_dump functions. It is obvious from the output of the code above that the result of the var_export function can be used in further computations, but that is not possible with the results from the var_dump function.
var_export function, unlike the var_dump function, won’t return the data type of the passed variable.