Is there a var_dump equivalent for objects?

PHP
1

Is there a var_dump equivalent for objects? I want to see what is inside of them for debugging purposes.

2

Seems like var dump does let me see inside of objects, at least partially. But why can vardump return nothing but say something like SplFileObject [2]? I thought this indicated that there were at least two properties of the object.

3

You can always try PHP’s reflection API, it provides tools that suit your need.

4

I am totally lost on how to use that unfortunately. I tried to use that a while back but the list of methods is not formatted and appears to be a jumbled mess. I am not sure how to format it. The output doesn’t look nice as it does in the example here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/reflectionclass.export.php.

But I thought the Reflection API was to see inside of classes? I actually want to see what the current properties of an object are. I guess I just don’t understand what SplFileObject [2] means if var dump doesn’t return any more info than that.

5

Try var_export
Depending on what you really need it may help you
http://us1.php.net/manual/en/function.var-export.php