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# var_export

(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5)

var_export — Outputs or returns a parsable string representation of a variable

### Description

mixed var_export ( mixed `$expression` [, bool `$return` = false ] )

var_export() gets structured information about the given variable. It is similar to var_dump() with one exception: the returned representation is valid PHP code.

### Parameters

`expression`

  The variable you want to export.

`return`

  If used and set to `TRUE`, var_export() will return the variable representation instead of outputing it.

  > Note: This function uses internal output buffering with this parameter so it can not be used inside an ob_start() callback function.

### Return Values

Returns the variable representation when the `return` parameter is used and evaluates to `TRUE`. Otherwise, this function will return `NULL`.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.1.0 | Possibility to export classes and arrays containing classes using the __set_state magic method.

### Examples

Example #1 var_export() Examples

`<?php
$a = array (1, 2, array ("a", "b", "c"));
var_export($a);
?>`

The above example will output:

    array (
      0 => 1,
      1 => 2,
      2 =>
      array (
        0 => 'a',
        1 => 'b',
        2 => 'c',
      ),
    )

`<?php
$b = 3.1;
$v = var_export($b, true);
echo $v;
?>`

The above example will output:

    3.1

Example #2 Exporting classes since PHP 5.1.0

`<?php
class A { public $var; }
$a = new A;
$a->var = 5;
var_export($a);
?>`

The above example will output:

    A::__set_state(array(
       'var' => 5,
    ))

Example #3 Using __set_state (since PHP 5.1.0)

`<?php
class A
{
public $var1;
public $var2;
public static function __set_state($an_array)
{
$obj = new A;
$obj->var1 = $an_array['var1'];
$obj->var2 = $an_array['var2'];
return $obj;
}
}
$a = new A;
$a->var1 = 5;
$a->var2 = 'foo';
eval('$b = ' . var_export($a, true) . ';'); // $b = A::__set_state(array(
// 'var1' => 5,
// 'var2' => 'foo',
// ));
var_dump($b);
?>`

The above example will output:

    object(A)#2 (2) {
      ["var1"]=>
      int(5)
      ["var2"]=>
      string(3) "foo"
    }

### Notes

> Note: Variables of type resource couldn't be exported by this function.

> Note: var_export() does not handle circular references as it would be close to impossible to generate parsable PHP code for that. If you want to do something with the full representation of an array or object, use serialize().

### See Also

- print_r() - Prints human-readable information about a variable
- serialize() - Generates a storable representation of a value
- var_dump() - Dumps information about a variable

var_dump
Web Services
Variable handling Functions
PHP Manual