putting print_r results in variable

Question

In PHP I can say:

print_r($var);

What I can\'t do (at least I don\'t know how) is:

$var_info = print_r($var);

Answer 1

$var_info = print_r($var, true);

Answer 2

When the second parameter is set to TRUE, print_r() will return the information rather than print it

$var_info = print_r($var,true);