Make print_r() Pretty

Posted by jj_jiles on Aug 11, 2010 in PHP | 1 comment

This is literally print_r() dressed up. I normally run this within my general $app object so to call it, I would use $app->debug($var). As with print_r(), it loops indefinitely using lists to format a readable layout in HTML. This helps the developer avoid having to view source and scroll…and scroll…and scroll to find the output of an array or object.

class System_Application {

	/* ***********************************************************
	* START :::
	*	Used for writing variables and arrays to screen
	*	for debugging. If array, it will place a line break
	*	after each value for easy on-screen viewing
	*
	*	$app->debug($var);
	*
	*	if var is empty, it will display "Hello World"
	*	$show defaults to true. setting this false will wrap the
	*	output in a div with a display:none so it won't show
	*	except if you view HTML source
	*********************************************************** */
	function debug($var=false,$show=true) {

		$display=(!$show)?' style="display: none;"':'';

		echo '<div class="light-font"'.$display.'>&nbsp;';
		if ( is_array($var) || is_object($var) ):
			foreach ($var as $key=>$val) :
				echo $key;
				if (is_array($val) || is_object($val)) :
					echo '<ul style="margin:0;padding:0 0 0 15px;list-style:none;">';
					foreach ($val as $key1=>$val1) :
						echo '<li>'.$key . '['.$key1.']' . ' = ';
							if (is_array($val1) || is_object($val1)) :
								$this->debug_array($val1);
							else :
								echo $val1.'</li>';
							endif;
					endforeach;
					echo '</ul>';
				else :
					echo ' = ' . $val.'<br />';
				endif;
			endforeach;
		else:
			echo $var;
		endif;

		if (empty($var)) :
			echo 'Hello World ';
		endif;

		echo '</div>';
	}

		function debug_array($var) {
			echo '<ul style="margin:0;padding:0 0 0 25px;list-style:none;">';
			foreach ($var as $key1=>$val1) :

				echo '<li>[' . $key1 . '] = ';

				if (is_array($val1) || is_object($val1)) :
					$this->debug_array($val1);
				else :
					echo $val1.'</li>';
				endif;

			endforeach;
			echo '</ul>';
		}

	/* ***********************************************************
	* END :::
	*********************************************************** */
}

$app = new System_Application;

Use:

/* an example of an icon array I have for twitter app icons */
	var $icon = array(
		'toolbar' => array(
			'logout'    => 'hi-res/Logout.png',
		     'compose'   => 'hi-res/Compose.png',
		     'reload'    => 'hi-res/Reload.png',
		     'scrolltop' => 'hi-res/Scroll-Top-Alt.png'
		),
		'tweet'     => array(
			'profile'   => 'hi-res/Profile.png',
			'reply'     => 'hi-res/Reply.png',
			'dm'        => 'hi-res/DM.png',
			'links'     => 'hi-res/Links.png',
			'favorite'  => 'hi-res/Favorite-Alt.png'
		)
	);

$app->debug($icon);

Results:

<p class="light-font">
        toolbar<ul style="margin:0;padding:0 0 0 15px;list-style:none;">
                        <li>toolbar[logout] = hi-res/Logout.png</li>
                        <li>toolbar[compose] = hi-res/Compose.png</li>
                        <li>toolbar[reload] = hi-res/Reload.png</li>
                        <li>toolbar[scrolltop] = hi-res/Scroll-Top-Alt.png</li>
                </ul>
        tweet<ul style="margin:0;padding:0 0 0 15px;list-style:none;">
                        <li>tweet[profile] = hi-res/Profile.png</li>
                        <li>tweet[reply] = hi-res/Reply.png</li>
                        <li>tweet[dm] = hi-res/DM.png</li>
                        <li>tweet[links] = hi-res/Links.png</li>
                        <li>tweet[favorite] = hi-res/Favorite-Alt.png</li>
                </ul>
</p>

Which translates to:

 
 
There ya go. That’s all there is too it.