How can I parse the output of var_dump in PHP to create an array?
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Does this answer your question? Convert var_dump of array back to array variableggorlen– ggorlen2022-06-01 01:15:33 +00:00Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 1:15
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6 Answers
Use var_export if you want a representation which is also valid PHP code
$a = array (1, 2, array ("a", "b", "c"));
$dump=var_export($a, true);
echo $dump;
will display
array (
0 => 1,
1 => 2,
2 =>
array (
0 => 'a',
1 => 'b',
2 => 'c',
),
)
To turn that back into an array, you can use eval, e.g.
eval("\$foo=$dump;");
var_dump($foo);
Not sure why you would want to do this though. If you want to store a PHP data structure somewhere and then recreate it later, check out serialize() and unserialize() which are more suited to this task.
4 Comments
Megan Caithlyn
This is WRONG. It doesn't produce an array, it just makes $foo a string, which is equal to $dump, which is also a string, which should be parsed.
Seika85
No it does not work. When I take the outputtet string, comment out your first two lines and set $dump to this outputted string (wither html or text), I get an syntax error. So it's different to use a var_export-ed variable and to only have a already var_dump-ed string.
Paul Dixon
If you get a syntax error you're doing something wrong. I'd suggest you ask a new question.
Hugo-dev
I was having the same problem, and rather than having to tweak some code to turn my var_dump into the correct PHP multi-dimensional array syntax, I simply converted my array to YAML. This format is more readable and can fit in a single variable or in a hard .yml file. Then you can convert it as you like to php array or JSON. For me it is the easiest solution to store dynamic tables while keeping readability.
Comments
I had a similar problem : a long runing script produced at the end a vardump of large array. I had to parse it back somehow for further analyzis. My solution was like this:
cat log.stats |
sed 's/\[//g' |
sed 's/\]//g' |
sed -r 's/int\(([0-9]+)\)/\1,/g' |
sed 's/\}/\),/g' |
sed -r 's/array\([0-9]+\) \{/array(/g' >
log.stats.php
2 Comments
WonderLand
good answer, the only issue is if you have values contain strings ... so they get not wrapped by ''
qbolec
Definitely it was just a quick hack which worked for my specific scenario. In general var_dump is horrible to parse back, so whenever possible I use something else (mostly json_encode). You are right that strings would cause problems. Huge problems if contain slashes or quotes. Moderate if contain something which itself looks like var dump output (=>, [8] or int(12)) :)
2 Comments
Seika85
What about one having a string from var_dump via goold old copy paste? (I know people who copy paste huge var_dumps to text-files and send those text-files to me.)
Joey
@Seika85: You can tell them to use output buffering to get the result as a string. But for the purposes of this question this is still a »No« as they asked about getting an array.
Perhaps you are trying to convert an object to an array? http://www.phpro.org/examples/Convert-Object-To-Array-With-PHP.html
Comments
var_export creates the PHP code, which you can run through the eval.
But I wonder, what is your idea?
