Question

Is there a straightforward way in PHP to get an arbitrary complex value into a string without triggering recursion limits? For example, passing an hugely nested object and specifying I want only 2 levels deep.

What I want to avoid is getting an error on var_export or var_dump, even if that means that I get less accurate output.

Thanks!

Clarification: I want to use the string for logging usage, so debuggers are not applicable.

Answer 1

Maybe having a super class looking like this:

class Dumpable {

    function varDump($max_depth = 2) {
        return self::dump((array)$this, $max_depth);
    }

    public static function dump($arr, $max_depth = 2) {
        if( $max_depth > 0 ) {
            $new_arr = array();
            foreach( $arr as $key => $val ) {
                if( $val instanceof Dumpable) {
                    $new_arr[$key] = $val->varDump($max_depth-1);
                }
                elseif( is_object($val) ) {
                    $new_arr[$key] = self::dump((array)$val, $max_depth-1);
                }
                elseif( is_array($val) ) {
                    $new_arr[$key] = self::dump($val, $max_depth-1);
                }
                else {
                    $new_arr[$key] = $val;
                }
            }
            return $new_arr;
        }
        elseif(is_object($arr)) {
           return 'Object:'.get_class($arr).'...';
        }
        else {
            return 'array...';
        }
    }

    public function __toString() {
        return print_r($this->varDump(), true);
    }
}

Then you’re able to call var_dump( $my_dumpable_obj->varDump() ); when wanting to dump an an object extending Dumpable. If your server supports php 5.4 it might be better to use this functions in a Trait instead.