How do I properly use print_r or var_dump?

Question

I use the following snippet quite often when I am debugging:

echo \"
\" . var_dump($var) . \"
\";

And I find I usually

Answer 1

var_dump() echos output directly, so if you want to capture it to a variable to provide your own formatting must use output buffers:

   ob_start();
   var_dump($var);
   $s = ob_get_clean();

Once this is done the variable $s now contains the output of var_dump(), so can safely:

   echo "
" . $s . "
";