PHP converting object to string

Question

I'm planning to save a returned object to a file, for downloading later on to review. For clarity sake, I'm working with an outside API service, and gathering their data, for parsing into another database.

Here's what I have:

<?php
require('class.php');
$client = new connect2Them();
$logged_in = $client->login();
if(!$logged_in){
  echo "Not connected!"; die();
}

$records = $client->get_records();
if(count($records < 1){
  echo "No records found"; die();
}

$singlerecord = $records[0];
print_r($singlerecord);

?>

The print_r() works fine, and I get back a very very large amount of data. I'm doing all this via command-line, so I want to save it to a text file.

I've added this below my $singlerecord:

<?php
$myFile = "reviewLater.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = $singlerecord;
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

?>

I get this error from PHP: PHP Warning: fwrite() expects parameter 2 to be string, object given in....

How do I put the print_r() into the reviewLater.txt?

Are you trying to store the data for later programmatic use, or just for human reading? — Mike Brant
– Mike Brant, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 21:33

Jeremy Harris · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 21:32:51Z

6

Objects can be serialized with PHP's serialize() function and saved to a file. Later you can unserialize() them to use them again if you want.

$stringData = serialize($singlerecord);

Fun Fact: This is one way to cache objects to files.

Ref: http://php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 21:32

Jeremy Harris

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2 Comments

clentfort Over a year ago

Well there is var_export.

Jeremy Harris Over a year ago

There is actually many ways to do this, and it all depends on the use case. Thanks, for adding that to the answer.

purpletree · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 21:34:01Z

4

As said above, you can serialize(), but to answer your question:

How do I put the print_r() into the reviewLater.txt?

If you set the second parameter of print_r() to true, there will be a string of the output and you can manipulate it as such :)

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 21:34

purpletree

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1 Comment

coffeemonitor Over a year ago

this is exactly what I was looking for. And yet so simple

Joshua Dwire · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 21:36:01Z

0

If you're dealing with simple objects (eg. not objects that reference themselves or are custom classes), you can use json_encode to encode the object to a JSON and json_decode to decode it later.

See http://php.net/manual/en/function.json-encode.php and http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.json-decode.php.

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 21:36

Joshua Dwire

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Comments

Mike Brant · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 21:36:41Z

0

Since The question about a means to serialize the data for later programmatic use has been given, I will mention that if you are just concerned about human-readable output, you can use fwrite($fh, var_export($singlerecord, true)); to print human readable representation as string output.

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 21:36

Mike Brant

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