Dumps information about a variable

unset
var_export
Variable handling Functions
PHP Manual

# var_dump

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

var_dump — Dumps information about a variable

### Description

void var_dump ( mixed `$expression` [, mixed `$...` ] )

This function displays structured information about one or more expressions that includes its type and value. Arrays and objects are explored recursively with values indented to show structure.

In PHP 5 all public, private and protected properties of objects will be returned in the output.

Tip

As with anything that outputs its result directly to the browser, the output-control functions can be used to capture the output of this function, and save it in a string (for example).

### Parameters

`expression`

  The variable you want to dump.

### Return Values

No value is returned.

### Examples

Example #1 var_dump() example

`<?php
$a = array(1, 2, array("a", "b", "c"));
var_dump($a);
?>`

The above example will output:

    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      int(1)
      [1]=>
      int(2)
      [2]=>
      array(3) {
        [0]=>
        string(1) "a"
        [1]=>
        string(1) "b"
        [2]=>
        string(1) "c"
      }
    }

`<?php
$b = 3.1;
$c = true;
var_dump($b, $c);
?>`

The above example will output:

    float(3.1)
    bool(true)

### See Also

- print_r() - Prints human-readable information about a variable
- debug_zval_dump() - Dumps a string representation of an internal zend value to output
- var_export() - Outputs or returns a parsable string representation of a variable

unset
var_export
Variable handling Functions
PHP Manual