print an array as code - php

Question

I want to convert a big yaml file to PHP array source code. I can read in the yaml code and get back a PHP array, but with var_dump($array) I get pseudo code as output. I would like to print the array as valid php code, so I can copy paste it in my project and ditch the yaml.

Answer 1

You're looking for var_export.

Answer 2

You could use var_export, serialize (with unserialize on the reserving end), or even json_encode (and use json_decode on the receiving end). The last one has the advantage of producing output that can be processed by anything that can handle JSON.

Answer 3

Don't know why but I could not find satisfying code anywhere.
Quickly wrote this. Let me know if you find any errors.
function printCode($array, $path=false, $top=true) {
$data = "";
$delimiter = "~~|~~";
$p = null;
if(is_array($array)){
foreach($array as $key => $a){
if(!is_array($a) || empty($a)){
if(is_array($a)){
$data .= $path."['{$key}'] = array();".$delimiter;
} else {
$data .= $path."['{$key}'] = \"".htmlentities(addslashes($a))."\";".$delimiter;
}
} else {
$data .= printCode($a, $path."['{$key}']", false);
}
}
}
if($top){
$return = "";
foreach(explode($delimiter, $data) as $value){
if(!empty($value)){
$return .= '$array'.$value."<br>";
}
};
return $return;
}
return $data;
}
//REQUEST
$x = array('key'=>'value', 'key2'=>array('key3'=>'value2', 'key4'=>'value3', 'key5'=>array()));
echo printCode($x);
//OUTPUT
$array['key'] = 'value';
$array['key2']['key3'] = 'value2';
$array['key2']['key4'] = 'value3';
$array['key2']['key5'] = array();
Hope this helps someone.

Answer 4

An other way to display array as code with indentation.
Tested only with an array who contain string, integer and array.
function bo_print_nice_array($array){
echo '$array=';
bo_print_nice_array_content($array, 1);
echo ';';
}
function bo_print_nice_array_content($array, $deep=1){
$indent = '';
$indent_close = '';
echo "[";
for($i=0; $i<$deep; $i++){
$indent.=' ';
}
for($i=1; $i<$deep; $i++){
$indent_close.=' ';
}
foreach($array as $key=>$value){
echo "<br>".$indent;
echo '"'.$key.'" => ';
if(is_string($value)){
echo '"'.$value.'"';
}elseif(is_array($value)){
bo_print_nice_array_content($value, ($deep+1));
}else{
echo $value;
}
echo ',';
}
echo '<br>'.$indent_close.']';
}