Saving php output in a file

Question

I have:

echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array2);echo"</pre>";
echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array3);echo"</pre>";
 echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array4);echo"</pre>";

I need to save what all of these print_r print into a file (without pronting anything in the page).

I know I need to do something like that:

$f = fopen("file.txt", "w");
fwrite($f, "TEXT TO WRITE");
fclose($f); 

But I don't know how to put the contents before in it.

Thansk a million

Solution 1

Try this out using the true param in the print_r:

$f = fopen("file.txt", "w");
fwrite($f, print_r($array2, true));
fwrite($f, print_r($array3, true));
fwrite($f, print_r($array4, true));
fclose($f); 

Solution 2

You can use Output Buffering, which comes pretty handy when you want to control what you output in your PHP scripts and how to output it. Here's a small sample:

ob_start();
echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array2);echo"</pre>";
echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array3);echo"</pre>";
echo"<br>";echo"<br><pre>";print_r($array4);echo"</pre>";

$content = ob_get_contents();

$f = fopen("file.txt", "w");
fwrite($f, $content);
fclose($f); 

EDIT: If you dont want to show the output in your page, you just have to call ob_end_clean():

ob_start();
//...

$content = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();
//... write the file, either with fopen or with file_put_contents

Comments

[CSᵠ]

don't use fopen(), but instead file_put_contents()

[user712027]

Sorry David, I forgot to mention: cannot show the prints in my page, I mean, instead of showing the print_r I have to save the output of the prints in the file. Thanks!

[Marc B]

@Ash: nothing. f_p_c() is just a glorified wrapper around fopen/fwrite/fclose. All you do is save yourself 2 lines of code.

[Colin Smillie]

Should be 'contents' instead of 'content'