Display an array in a readable/hierarchical format [duplicate] - php

Question

This question already has answers here:
Is there a pretty print for PHP?
(31 answers)
Closed 7 months ago.
Here is the code for pulling the data for my array
<?php
$link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'root', '', 'mutli_page_form');
$query = "SELECT * FROM wills_children WHERE will=73";
$result = mysqli_query($link, $query) or die(mysqli_error($link));
if ($result = mysqli_query($link, $query)) {
/* fetch associative array */
if($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$data = unserialize($row['children']);
}
/* free result set */
mysqli_free_result($result);
}
?>
When I use print_r($data) it reads as:
Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => Natural Chlid 1 [1] => Natural Chlid 2 [2] => Natural Chlid 3 ) )
I would like it to read as:
Natural Child 1
Natural Child 2
Natural Child 3

Answer 1

Instead of
print_r($data);
try
print "<pre>";
print_r($data);
print "</pre>";

Answer 2

print("<pre>".print_r($data,true)."</pre>");

Answer 3

I have a basic function:
function prettyPrint($a) {
echo "<pre>";
print_r($a);
echo "</pre>";
}
prettyPrint($data);
EDIT: Optimised function
function prettyPrint($a) {
echo '<pre>'.print_r($a,1).'</pre>';
}
EDIT: Moar Optimised function with custom tag support
function prettyPrint($a, $t='pre') {echo "<$t>".print_r($a,1)."</$t>";}

Answer 4

Try this:
foreach($data[0] as $child) {
echo $child . "\n";
}
in place of print_r($data)

Answer 5

I think that var_export(), the forgotten brother of var_dump() has the best output - it's more compact:
echo "<pre>";
var_export($menue);
echo "</pre>";
By the way: it's not allway necessary to use <pre>. var_dump() and var_export() are already formatted when you take a look in the source code of your webpage.

Answer 6

if someone needs to view arrays so cool ;) use this method.. this will print to your browser console
function console($obj)
{
$js = json_encode($obj);
print_r('<script>console.log('.$js.')</script>');
}
you can use like this..
console($myObject);
Output will be like this.. so cool eh !!

Answer 7

foreach($array as $v) echo $v, PHP_EOL;
UPDATE: A more sophisticated solution would be:
$test = [
'key1' => 'val1',
'key2' => 'val2',
'key3' => [
'subkey1' => 'subval1',
'subkey2' => 'subval2',
'subkey3' => [
'subsubkey1' => 'subsubval1',
'subsubkey2' => 'subsubval2',
],
],
];
function printArray($arr, $pad = 0, $padStr = "\t") {
$outerPad = $pad;
$innerPad = $pad + 1;
$out = '[' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
if (is_array($v)) {
$out .= str_repeat($padStr, $innerPad) . $k . ' => ' . printArray($v, $innerPad) . PHP_EOL;
} else {
$out .= str_repeat($padStr, $innerPad) . $k . ' => ' . $v;
$out .= PHP_EOL;
}
}
$out .= str_repeat($padStr, $outerPad) . ']';
return $out;
}
echo printArray($test);
This prints out:
[
key1 => val1
key2 => val2
key3 => [
subkey1 => subval1
subkey2 => subval2
subkey3 => [
subsubkey1 => subsubval1
subsubkey2 => subsubval2
]
]
]

Answer 8

print_r() is mostly for debugging. If you want to print it in that format, loop through the array, and print the elements out.
foreach($data as $d){
foreach($d as $v){
echo $v."\n";
}
}

Answer 9

This may be a simpler solution:
echo implode('<br>', $data[0]);

Answer 10

This tries to improve print_r() output formatting in console applications:
function pretty_printr($array) {
$string = print_r($array, TRUE);
foreach (preg_split("/((\r?\n)|(\r\n?))/", $string) as $line) {
$trimmed_line = trim($line);
// Skip useless lines.
if (!$trimmed_line || $trimmed_line === '(' || $trimmed_line === ')' || $trimmed_line === 'Array') {
continue;
}
// Improve lines ending with empty values.
if (substr_compare($trimmed_line, '=>', -2) === 0) {
$line .= "''";
}
print $line . PHP_EOL;
}
}
Example:
[activity_score] => 0
[allow_organisation_contact] => 1
[cover_media] => Array
[image] => Array
[url] => ''
[video] => Array
[url] => ''
[oembed_html] => ''
[thumb] => Array
[url] => ''
[created_at] => 2019-06-25T09:50:22+02:00
[description] => example description
[state] => published
[fundraiser_type] => anniversary
[end_date] => 2019-09-25
[event] => Array
[goal] => Array
[cents] => 40000
[currency] => EUR
[id] => 37798
[your_reference] => ''

Answer 11

I assume one uses print_r for debugging. I would then suggest using libraries like Kint. This allows displaying big arrays in a readable format:
$data = [['Natural Child 1', 'Natural Child 2', 'Natural Child 3']];
Kint::dump($data, $_SERVER);

Answer 12

One-liner for a quick-and-easy JSON representation:
echo json_encode($data, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
If using composer for the project already, require symfony/yaml and:
echo Yaml::dump($data);

Answer 13

echo '<pre>';
foreach($data as $entry){
foreach($entry as $entry2){
echo $entry2.'<br />';
}
}

Answer 14

<?php
//Make an array readable as string
function array_read($array, $seperator = ', ', $ending = ' and '){
$opt = count($array);
return $opt > 1 ? implode($seperator,array_slice($array,0,$opt-1)).$ending.end($array) : $array[0];
}
?>
I use this to show a pretty printed array to my visitors

Answer 15

Very nice way to print formatted array in php, using the var_dump function.
$a = array(1, 2, array("a", "b", "c"));
var_dump($a);

Answer 16

I use this for getting keys and their values
$qw = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
while ( $ou = mysqli_fetch_array($qw) )
{
foreach ($ou as $key => $value)
{
echo $key." - ".$value."";
}
echo "<br/>";
}

Answer 17

I would just use online tools.
first do print_r(your_array)
Second copy the result and paste in http://phillihp.com/toolz/php-array-beautifier/

Answer 18

For single arrays you can use implode, it has a cleaner result to print.
<?php
$msg = array('msg1','msg2','msg3');
echo implode('<br />',$msg);
echo '<br />----------------------<br/>';
echo nl2br(implode("\n",$msg));
echo '<br />----------------------<br/>';
?>
For multidimensional arrays you need to combine with some sort of loop.
<?php
$msgs[] = $msg;
$msgs[] = $msg;
$msgs[] = $msg;
$msgs[] = $msg;
$msgs[] = $msg;
foreach($msgs as $msg) {
echo implode('<br />',$msg);
echo '<br />----------------------<br/>';
}
?>