(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)
var_export — Outputs or returns a parsable string representation of a variable
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.
expressionThe variable you want to export.
return
If used and set to TRUE, var_export() will return
the variable representation instead of outputting it.
Returns the variable representation when the return
parameter is used and evaluates to TRUE. Otherwise, this function will
return NULL.
Note:
When the
returnparameter is used, this function uses internal output buffering so it cannot be used inside an ob_start() callback function.
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 7.3.0 |
Now exports stdClass objects as an array cast to
an object ((object) array( ... )), rather than using the
nonexistent method stdClass::__setState().
The practical effect is that now stdClass is
exportable, and the resulting code will even work on earlier versions of
PHP.
|
| 5.1.0 | Made it possible to export classes and arrays containing classes using the __set_state() magic method. |
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 stdClass (since PHP 7.3.0)
<?php
$person = new stdClass;
$person->name = 'ElePHPant ElePHPantsdotter';
$person->website = 'https://php.net/elephpant.php';
var_export($person);
The above example will output:
(object) array( 'name' => 'ElePHPant ElePHPantsdotter', 'website' => 'https://php.net/elephpant.php', )
Example #3 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 #4 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"
}
Note:
Variables of type resource couldn't be exported by this function.
Note:
var_export() does not handle circular references as it would be close to impossible to generate parsable PHP code for that. If you want to do something with the full representation of an array or object, use serialize().
When var_export() exports objects, the leading backslash is not included in the class name of namespaced classes for maximum compatibility.
Note:
To be able to evaluate the PHP generated by var_export(), all processed objects must implement the magic __set_state method. The only exception is stdClass, which is exported using an array cast to an object.