How to format var_export to php5.4 array syntax

Question

There are lots of questions and answers around the subject of valid php syntax from var outputs, what I am looking for is a quick and clean way of getting the output of

Answer 1

For anyone looking for a more modern-day solution, use the Symfony var-exporter, also available as a standalone library on composer, but included in Symfony default.

composer require symfony/var-exporter

use Symfony\Component\VarExporter\VarExporter;

// ...

echo VarExporter::export($arr)