Making PHP var_dump() values display one line per value

Question

When I echo var_dump($_variable), I get one long, wrapping line with all varable\'s and values like

[\"kt_login_user\"]=>  string(8) \"teacher1\" [\"kt_lo         


        

Answer 1

If you got XDebug installed, you can use it's var_dump replacement. Quoting:

Xdebug replaces PHP's var_dump() function for displaying variables. Xdebug's version includes different colors for different types and places limits on the amount of array elements/object properties, maximum depth and string lengths. There are a few other functions dealing with variable display as well.

You will likely want to tweak a few of the following settings:

There is a number of settings that control the output of Xdebug's modified var_dump() function: xdebug.var_display_max_children, xdebug.var_display_max_data and xdebug.var_display_max_depth. The effect of these three settings is best shown with an example. The script below is run four time, each time with different settings. You can use the tabs to see the difference.

But keep in mind that XDebug will significantly slow down your code, even when it's just loaded. It's not advisable to run in on production servers. But hey, you are not var_dumping on production servers anyway, are you?