PHP print_r Method for JavaScript

PHP offers print_r() and var_dump() methods that can print the values of arrays and objects recursively with values indented so it’s easy to debug code. There’s no print_r for JavaScript but OpenJS has an equivalent function for dumping variables in a structured format.

function dump(arr, level) {
  var dumped_text = '';
  if (!level) level = 0;

  // The padding given at the beginning of the line.
  var level_padding = '';

  for (var j = 0; j < level + 1; j++) level_padding += '  ';

  if (typeof arr == 'object') {
    // Array/Hashes/Objects

    for (var item in arr) {
      var value = arr[item];

      if (typeof value == 'object') {
        // If it is an array,
        dumped_text += level_padding + "'" + item + "' ...\n";
        dumped_text += dump(value, level + 1);
      } else {
        dumped_text += level_padding + "'" + item + '\' => "' + value + '"\n';
      }
    }
  } else {
    // Stings/Chars/Numbers etc.
    dumped_text = '===>' + arr + '<===(' + typeof arr + ')';
  }
  return dumped_text;
}
Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

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ProductHunt Golden Kitty

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Microsoft MVP Alumni

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