Is it possible to get the output of var_dump in a string instead of printing it?

Solution : Using var_export

If you want to capture structured debug output as a string, var_export() is a good option. Unlike var_dump(), it has a second parameter $return which, when set to true, makes it return the output instead of printing it:

$debug = var_export($myVar, true);

✅ Why use this?

Cleaner one-liner (no need for ob_start() / ob_get_clean()).

Produces output that is valid PHP code, so you could even eval() it if needed.

Generally easier to read for many cases.

⚠️ Difference from var_dump:

var_export → returns a parsable PHP code representation of the variable.

var_dump → outputs detailed debug info, including types and lengths.

For resources, var_export just returns NULL.

Demo:

$demo = [
    "bool"     => false,
    "int"      => 1,
    "float"    => 3.14,
    "string"   => "hello world",
    "array"    => [],
    "object"   => new stdClass(),
    "resource" => tmpfile(),
    "null"     => null,
];

// var_export
$debug_export = var_export($demo, true);

// var_dump (captured using output buffering)
ob_start();
var_dump($demo);
$debug_dump = ob_get_clean();

// print_r (also returns a string if second param is true)
$debug_printr = print_r($demo, true);

Example Outputs:

1. var_export

array (
  'bool' => false,
  'int' => 1,
  'float' => 3.1400000000000001,
  'string' => 'hello world',
  'array' => 
  array (
  ),
  'object' => 
  stdClass::__set_state(array(
  )),
  'resource' => NULL,
  'null' => NULL,
)

2.var_dump
array(8) {
[“bool”]=>
bool(false)
[“int”]=>
int(1)
[“float”]=>
float(3.14)
[“string”]=>
string(11) “hello world”
[“array”]=>
array(0) {
}
[“object”]=>
object(stdClass)#1 (0) {
}
[“resource”]=>
resource(4) of type (stream)
[“null”]=>
NULL
}

3. print_r

Array
(
    [bool] => 
    [int] => 1
    [float] => 3.14
    [string] => hello world
    [array] => Array
        (
        )
    [object] => stdClass Object
        (
        )
    [resource] => Resource id #4
    [null] => 
)

Caveat:
var_export cannot handle circular references. For example:

$circular = [];
$circular['self'] =& $circular;

var_export($circular);

⚠️ Produces:

Warning: var_export does not handle circular references
array (
  'self' => 
  array (
    'self' => NULL,
  ),
)

Meanwhile, var_dump and print_r will show *RECURSION* safely.