Question

After I have upgraded my localhost wamp server to php 5.3.10, the var_dump does not print results that are as readable/pretty as they used to be.

$obj = (object) array('qualitypoint', 'technologies', 'India');
var_dump($obj);

object(stdClass)#2 (3) { [0]=> string(12) "qualitypoint" [1]=> string(12) "technologies" [2]=> string(5) "India" }

As you can see that everything now is cramp into one line.

It used to print something like this below though,

object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
 [0]=> string(12) "qualitypoint"
 [1]=> string(12) "technologies"
 [2]=> string(5) "India"
}

How can I make var_dump to return a readable formatted result?

Answer 1

object(stdClass)#2 (3) { [0]=> string(12) "qualitypoint" [1]=> string(12) "technologies" [2]=> string(5) "India" }

Is normal PHP output for this code:

$obj = (object) array('qualitypoint', 'technologies', 'India');
var_dump($obj);

For more readable format You probably used Xdebug extension for PHP.
Check You PHP extensions directory (PHP directory/ext/ on Windows).

If there is not file with name like this:

php_xdebug-X.X.X-X.X-vcX.dll

Download one for You PHP version

Put it in extensions directory add to PHP configuration (php.ini file) bellow other PHP extensions.

Example:

zend_extension=PHP_EXTENSIONS_ABSOLUTE_PATH\php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.3-vc9.dll

Restart Apache and var_dump() output will be formatted like this:

object(stdClass)[1]
  string 'qualitypoint' (length=12)
  string 'technologies' (length=12)
  string 'India' (length=5)