How to “echo” a class?

Question

This is probably really easy but I can\'t seem to figure out how to print/echo a class so I can find out some details about it.

I know this doesn\'t work, but this i

Answer 1

To get more detailed info out of your class (if you want to know what's available to a child class for example), you can add a debug() method.

Here's an example class with such a method that I use that prints out the methods, default vars, and instance vars in a nice structured way:

privateVar = 'parent instance';
    }
    public function test(){}
    /**
     * Prints out detailed info of the class and instance.
     */
    public function debug(){
        $class = __CLASS__;
        echo "
$class Methods:\n";
        var_dump(get_class_methods($class));
        echo "\n\n$class Default Vars:\n";
        var_dump(get_class_vars($class));
        echo "\n\n$class Current Vars:\n";
        var_dump($this);
        echo "
";
    }
}

class TestClassChild extends TestClass{
    public function __construct(){
        $this->privateVar = 'child instance';
    }
}

$test = new TestClass();
$test2 = new TestClassChild();

$test->debug();
$test2->debug();