var_dump in PHP, by default, prints the results of var_dump to the output in the same way that print would. This prevents us from doing things like echo "Variable 'x' is: " . var_dump($x) . ".";.

To prevent this, we can use the output buffer instead.

Usage

In place of var_dump(...), you simply use var_data(...).

$x = 2;
print "Using var_dump on 'x': " . var_dump($x) . ".<br/>";
print "Using var_data on 'x': " . var_data($x) . ".<br/>";

This will produce:

int(2) Using var_dump on 'x': .
Using var_data on 'x': int(2).

Code

function var_data($var) {
    ob_start();
    var_dump($var);
    return ob_get_clean();
}