PHP Basics: PHP print var_dump to error

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Here’s a piece of code I’ve been using when debugging PHP.

I want to print a value to the error log using error_log(), but it only accepts strings.

So I used this snippet to print the result of a var_dump():

ob_start();
var_dump($something);
$contents = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
error_log($contents);

0:	Introduction
1:	How to set up PHP
2:	How to create your first PHP program
3:	How to deal with errors in PHP
4:	How to use exceptions in PHP
5:	How to use Composer and Packagist in PHP
6:	How to work with files/folders in PHP
7:	▶︎ PHP print var_dump to error_log