var_export in PHP

var_export — Outputs or returns a parsable string representation of a variable


Syntax: 
mixed var_export ( mixed $expression [, bool $return = false ] )

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: 

expression

    The variable you want to export.
return

    If used and set to TRUE, var_export() will return the variable representation instead of outputting it.

Return Values:

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

    Note:

    When the return parameter is used, this function uses internal output buffering so it cannot be used inside an ob_start() callback function.

Changelog:
Version Description
5.1.0 Possibility to export classes and arrays containing classes using the __set_state() magic method.
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:

    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().

Warning

When var_export() exports objects, the leading slash is not included in the class name of namespaced classes for maximum compatibility.