PHP-like print_r() & var_dump() equivalent for JavaScript

readme.txt

Usage example
==============

-- Consider there is an object:

var obj = { foo: 'foo', bar: { foo: true, bar: null, baz: function(){alert('Hello');}}, qux: [1, 3, 2, 'qwerty', 55], quxx: /^[0-9]/ };

-- Then print_r(obj) or var_dump(obj) will return:

Object
{
	foo => 'foo',
	bar => Object
	{
		foo => true,
		bar => null,
		baz => function (){alert('Hello');}
	},
	qux => Array
	[
		0 => 1,
		1 => 3,
		2 => 2,
		3 => 'qwerty',
		4 => 55
	],
	quxx => /^[0-9]/
}

print_r.js

/**
 * PHP-like print_r() equivalent for JavaScript Object
 *
 * @author Faisalman <fyzlman@gmail.com>
 * @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 * @link http://gist.github.com/879208
 */
var print_r = function (obj, t) {

    // define tab spacing
    var tab = t || '';

    // check if it's array
    var isArr = Object.prototype.toString.call(obj) === '[object Array]';
	
    // use {} for object, [] for array
    var str = isArr ? ('Array\n' + tab + '[\n') : ('Object\n' + tab + '{\n');

    // walk through it's properties
    for (var prop in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
            var val1 = obj[prop];
            var val2 = '';
            var type = Object.prototype.toString.call(val1);
            switch (type) {
                
                // recursive if object/array
                case '[object Array]':
                case '[object Object]':
                    val2 = print_r(val1, (tab + '\t'));
                    break;
					
                case '[object String]':
                    val2 = '\'' + val1 + '\'';
                    break;
					
                default:
                    val2 = val1;
            }
            str += tab + '\t' + prop + ' => ' + val2 + ',\n';
        }
    }
	
    // remove extra comma for last property
    str = str.substring(0, str.length - 2) + '\n' + tab;
	
    return isArr ? (str + ']') : (str + '}');
};

I just found out that there is a project called phpjs at http://phpjs.org , more complete set of PHP-like functions for JavaScript can be found there (including print_r() of course), however my implementation has more simple approach and doesn't need any dependencies.

you could just go with JSON.stringify() instead

@unicornist : Superb ...Smartest of all the replies .. Thanks for that

pure perfection :) thanks for sharing

this is the first try able to print out the "window" object (all other chokes on recursion)

@unicornist: try JSON.stringify() the "window" and see the difference

Nice ´+1

You can simply use the NPM package @smartankur4u/vardump

npm install @smartankur4u/vardump --save-dev

Usage:

const vardump = require('@smartankur4u/vardump')

var variable = {
  'data': {
    'stuff': [{
      'onetype': [{
        'id': 1,
        'name': 'John Doe'
      },
        {
          'id': 2,
          'name': 'Don Joeh'
        }
      ]
    }]
  }
}


// print the variable using vardump
vardump(variable)

This will print

object(1) {
    ["data"] => object(1) {
        ["stuff"] => array(1) {
            [0] => object(1) {
                ["onetype"] => array(2) {
                    [0] => object(2) {
                        ["id"] => number(1)
                        ["name"] => string(8) "John Doe"
                    }
                    [1] => object(2) {
                        ["id"] => number(2)
                        ["name"] => string(8) "Don Joeh"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Thank me later!