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var_dump() of strings and variables not showing desired results

I am working on a script that curls another site and then parses the results. I seem to be having some weird problems and I can't understand where they are coming from; I have included the problematic part of my code as well as the output that is returned from it below:

<?php
    //my code to do some logic and build the curl

    $BookingConfirmation = curl_exec($ch);

    $testString = 'a test';
    var_dump($testString);
    echo '<br />';
    echo $BookingConfirmation;
    echo '<br />';
    var_dump($BookingConfirmation);
    echo '<br />';

    $bookingResults = explode('|', $BookingConfirmation);

    var_dump($bookingResults);
    die();
?>

when I then load the page, I am getting this output:

string(6) "a test"
booking|1||4000015|23628
string(2386) " booking|1||4000015|23628 "
array(6) { 
    [0]=> string(766) " string(1526) "108^1"> booking" 
    [2]=> string(1) "1" 
    [3]=>     string(0) "" 
    [4]=> string(7) "4000015" 
    [5]=> string(81) "23628 " 
} 

So according to what $BookingConfirmation is showing me, I wouldn't expect the array to contain "108^1" anywhere within it. Also, why would the var_dump of $BookingConfirmation be showing that it is a 2386 character string? It is nowhere near that long. Another question is, what is happening with the second element that should be in the array? ($bookingResults[1]) The final dump of that array is showing that there are 6 elements, but with #1 being skipped there are only 5 being shown.

It also might be useful to note that none of these variable names are used anywhere else in the code.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

like image 897
ProdigyProgrammer Avatar asked Aug 31 '25 02:08

ProdigyProgrammer


2 Answers

Either use view-source, text/plain content-type, or run it through command line.

<?php
    header("Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8");
    //my code to do some logic and build the curl

    $BookingConfirmation = curl_exec($ch);

    $testString = 'a test';
    var_dump($testString);
    echo '<br />';
    echo $BookingConfirmation;
    echo '<br />';
    var_dump($BookingConfirmation);
    echo '<br />';

    $bookingResults = explode('|', $BookingConfirmation);

    var_dump($bookingResults);
    die();
?>

I suspect the input contained <, which is rendered as some hidden html tag. I mean,string(2386) " booking|1||4000015|23628 ", means the string has 2386 bytes.

like image 170
Esailija Avatar answered Sep 02 '25 16:09

Esailija


To see the result of the function var_dump() literally, use HTML's pre element:

  echo '<pre>';
  var_dump( $bookingResults );  
  echo '</pre>';
like image 40
SteAp Avatar answered Sep 02 '25 15:09

SteAp