get_debug_type

(PHP 8)

get_debug_type — Gets the type name of a variable in a way that is suitable for debugging

Description

get_debug_type(mixed $value): string

Returns the resolved name of the PHP variable value. This function will resolve objects to their class name, resources to their resource type name, and scalar values to their common name as would be used in type declarations.

This function differs from gettype() in that it returns type names that are more consistent with actual usage, rather than those present for historical reasons.

Parameters

value: The variable being type checked.

Return Values

Possible values for the returned string are:

Type + State	Return Value	Notes
null	`"null"`	-
Booleans (true or false)	`"bool"`	-
Integers	`"int"`	-
Floats	`"float"`	-
Strings	`"string"`	-
Arrays	`"array"`	-
Resources	`"resource (resourcename)"`	-
Resources (Closed)	`"resource (closed)"`	Example: A file stream after being closed with fclose.
Objects from Named Classes	The full name of the class including its namespace e.g. `Foo\Bar`	-
Objects from Anonymous Classes	`"class@anonymous"`	Anonymous classes are those created through the $x = new class { ... } syntax

Examples

Example #1 get_debug_type() example

<?php
echo get_debug_type(null) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type(true) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type(1) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type(0.1) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type("foo") . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type([]) . PHP_EOL;

$fp = fopen(__FILE__, 'rb');
echo get_debug_type($fp) . PHP_EOL;

fclose($fp);
echo get_debug_type($fp) . PHP_EOL;

echo get_debug_type(new stdClass) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type(new class {}) . PHP_EOL;
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

null
bool
int
float
string
array
resource (stream)
resource (closed)
stdClass
class@anonymous

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User Contributed Notes 1 note

down

vyacheslav dot belchuk at gmail dot com ¶

9 months ago

Also, the function returns the correct type of Closure, as opposed to gettype()

<?php

echo get_debug_type(function () {}) . PHP_EOL;
echo get_debug_type(fn () => '') . PHP_EOL . PHP_EOL;

echo gettype(function () {}) . PHP_EOL;
echo gettype(fn () => '');

?>

Output:

Closure
Closure

object
object