---
description: >-
  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php
---

# How to echo or print an array in PHP?

18549

I have this array

```
Array
(
  [data] => Array
    (
      [0] => Array
        (
          [page_id] => 204725966262837
          [type] => WEBSITE
        )

      [1] => Array
        (
          [page_id] => 163703342377960
          [type] => COMMUNITY
        )
      )
)
```

My question is how can I just echo the content without this structure? I tried

```
foreach ($results as $result) {
    echo $result->type; 
    echo "<br>";
} 
```

[php](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/php) [arrays](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/arrays)[share](https://stackoverflow.com/q/9816889)[improve this question](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816889/edit)[edited May 31 '19 at 23:48](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816889/revisions)[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z0g8T.png?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5411817/sherylhohman)[SherylHohman](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5411817/sherylhohman)8,7201111 gold badges5252 silver badges6666 bronze badgesasked Mar 22 '12 at 5:22[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9bURh.jpg?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/807325/enexoonoma)[EnexoOnoma](https://stackoverflow.com/users/807325/enexoonoma)6,8281616 gold badges7474 silver badges154154 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)

### 11 Answers

[active](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php?answertab=active#tab-top)[oldest](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php?answertab=oldest#tab-top)[votes](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php?answertab=votes#tab-top)111

This will do

```
foreach($results['data'] as $result) {
    echo $result['type'], '<br>';
}
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9816938)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816938/edit)answered Mar 22 '12 at 5:29[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/e841b2deaeef854e0ab8ec6cdd1ba740?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/376535/shiplu-mokaddim)[Shiplu Mokaddim](https://stackoverflow.com/users/376535/shiplu-mokaddim)49.1k1212 gold badges114114 silver badges174174 bronze badges

* Thank you for this. Can you tell me how can I echo for example only the type of the Array \[1] ? – [EnexoOnoma](https://stackoverflow.com/users/807325/enexoonoma) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:29](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505844_9816938)
* 6@Kaoukkos `echo $results['data'][1]['type'];` – [Shiplu Mokaddim](https://stackoverflow.com/users/376535/shiplu-mokaddim) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:33](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505890_9816938)
* What if I dont have any key like `data`? – [Pratik Butani](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1318946/pratik-butani) [Oct 24 '18 at 11:10](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment92841155_9816938)

[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)441

To **see the contents of array** you can use.

**1)** `print_r($array);` or if you want nicely formatted array then:

```
echo '<pre>'; print_r($array); echo '</pre>';
```

**2)** use `var_dump($array)` to get more information of the content in the array like datatype and length.

**3)** you can loop the array using php's `foreach();` and get the desired output. more info on foreach in php's documentation website:\
[http://in3.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php](http://in3.php.net/manual/en/control-structures.foreach.php)[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9816958)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816958/edit)[edited Feb 4 '16 at 17:34](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816958/revisions)[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/58f9884421d1af250a816ac3eaaa5a13?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1811992/web-tiki)[web-tiki](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1811992/web-tiki)79.8k2525 gold badges182182 silver badges218218 bronze badgesanswered Mar 22 '12 at 5:32[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/t9zJy.png?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/396476/ibrahim-azhar-armar)[Ibrahim Azhar Armar](https://stackoverflow.com/users/396476/ibrahim-azhar-armar)21.3k2929 gold badges106106 silver badges179179 bronze badges

* 1Nice and elegant. You might want to change the closing tag in #1 from \<pre/> to \</pre>. – [Michael](https://stackoverflow.com/users/244549/michael) [Jun 21 '14 at 21:47](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment37640303_9816958)
* 1This answer does not address the mistake that OP did. – [Shiplu Mokaddim](https://stackoverflow.com/users/376535/shiplu-mokaddim) [Nov 21 '14 at 17:28](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment42647349_9816958)
* 2could you explain how the \<pre>\</pre> construct makes this display "nicely?" – [Robin Andrews](https://stackoverflow.com/users/3042018/robin-andrews) [May 28 '16 at 17:04](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment62498140_9816958)
* 1@Robin \<pre> tag displays new lines and tabulation as it's outputed by print\_r(); without \<pre> you would see a messy unformatted bounds of data. To see it formatted you should then view the html page source. – [j.c](https://stackoverflow.com/users/2619679/j-c) [Sep 29 '16 at 9:00](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment66826370_9816958)

[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)91

If you just want to know the content without a format (e.g. for debuging purpose) I use this:

```
echo json_encode($anArray);
```

This will show it as a JSON which is pretty human readable.[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/17371991)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/17371991/edit)[edited Jan 7 '14 at 2:07](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/17371991/revisions)answered Jun 28 '13 at 19:11[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GcrmP.jpg?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1362366/mark-e)[Mark E](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1362366/mark-e)2,6351515 silver badges3131 bronze badges

* I wanted to extract some data from a `html - php` document using Cordova `InAppBrowser` `executeScript` method, without `json_encode($array)` I could not achieve that! Thanks a lot @Mark E – [Hamid Araghi](https://stackoverflow.com/users/4411896/hamid-araghi) [Mar 29 '19 at 11:42](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment97552237_17371991)

[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)29

There are multiple function to printing array content that each has features.

### [`print_r()`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.print-r.php)

Prints human-readable information about a variable.

```
$arr = ["a", "b", "c"];
```

```
echo "<pre>";
print_r($arr);
echo "</pre>";
```

```
Array
(
    [0] => a
    [1] => b
    [2] => c
)
```

### [`var_dump()`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.var-dump.php)

Displays structured information about expressions that includes its type and value.

```
echo "<pre>";
var_dump($arr);
echo "</pre>";
```

```
array(3) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "a"
  [1]=>
  string(1) "b"
  [2]=>
  string(1) "c"
}
```

### [`var_export()`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.var-export.php)

Displays structured information about the given variable that returned representation is valid PHP code.

```
echo "<pre>";
var_export($arr);
echo "</pre>";
```

```
array (
  0 => 'a',
  1 => 'b',
  2 => 'c',
)
```

Note that because browser condense multiple whitespace characters (including newlines) to a single space ([answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/588362/5104748)) you need to wrap above functions in `<pre></pre>` to display result in correct format.

Also there is another way to printing array content with certain conditions.

### [`echo`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.echo.php)

Output one or more strings. So if you want to print array content using `echo`, you need to loop through array and in loop use `echo` to printing array items.

```
foreach ($arr as $key=>$item){
    echo "$key => $item <br>";
}
```

```
0 => a 
1 => b 
2 => c 
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/52801002)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/52801002/edit)answered Oct 14 '18 at 8:51[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/a3147dbf27b3d0950d7c9d964d11045e?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG\&f=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5104748/mohammad)[Mohammad](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5104748/mohammad)17.7k1313 gold badges4343 silver badges6868 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)20

Did you try using [`print_r`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.print-r.php) to print it in human-readable form?[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9816921)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816921/edit)[edited Jul 15 '15 at 14:50](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816921/revisions)[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/f5cfb52c6e63da167d1dc8ac8befa427?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG\&f=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1980250/kamal-pal)[kamal pal](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1980250/kamal-pal)4,05955 gold badges2020 silver badges3939 bronze badgesanswered Mar 22 '12 at 5:26[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/bb3f31cfad3f609744da4b4ca3224f88?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/108561/walker)[Walker](https://stackoverflow.com/users/108561/walker)1,14522 gold badges1212 silver badges2626 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)19

You can use [`print_r`](https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.print-r.php), [`var_dump`](https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.var-dump.php) and [`var_export`](https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.var-export.php) funcations of php:

`print_r`: Convert into human readble form

```
<?php
echo "<pre>";
 print_r($results); 
echo "</pre>";
?>
```

`var_dump()`: will show you the type of the thing as well as what's in it.

```
var_dump($results);
```

`foreach loop`: using for each loop you can iterate each and every value of an array.

```
foreach($results['data'] as $result) {
    echo $result['type'].'<br>';
}
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/32021234)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/32021234/edit)[edited Aug 21 '19 at 8:23](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/32021234/revisions)answered Aug 15 '15 at 3:30[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DU96V.jpg?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/11956084/ankur-tiwari)[Ankur Tiwari](https://stackoverflow.com/users/11956084/ankur-tiwari)2,40622 gold badges1313 silver badges3838 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)17

```
foreach($results['data'] as $result) {
    echo $result['type'], '<br />';
}
```

or `echo $results['data'][1]['type'];`[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9816907)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816907/edit)[edited Mar 22 '12 at 5:47](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/9816907/revisions)answered Mar 22 '12 at 5:25[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/f3634195974b1c5e78fe970ffd6b76f7?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1173667/rezigned)[Rezigned](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1173667/rezigned)4,11211 gold badge1616 silver badges1717 bronze badges

* Thank you for this. Can you tell me how can I echo for example only the type of the Array \[1] ? – [EnexoOnoma](https://stackoverflow.com/users/807325/enexoonoma) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:29](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505841_9816907)
* what do you mean by Array \[1]? :o – [Andreas Wong](https://stackoverflow.com/users/135448/andreas-wong) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:32](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505873_9816907)
* @andreas I want to echo only the COMMUNITY or the 163703342377960. Not the entire content of the array but specifically – [EnexoOnoma](https://stackoverflow.com/users/807325/enexoonoma) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:35](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505903_9816907)
* Try `echo $results['data'][1]['page_id'];` – [Andreas Wong](https://stackoverflow.com/users/135448/andreas-wong) [Mar 22 '12 at 5:36](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php#comment12505918_9816907)

[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)8

You have no need to put for loop to see the data into the array, you can simply do in following manner

```
<?php
echo "<pre>";
 print_r($results); 
echo "</pre>";
?>
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/31430967)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/31430967/edit)[edited Aug 2 '17 at 20:30](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/31430967/revisions)[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IU0E8.jpg?s=32\&g=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/6509507/blackcoat77)[Blackcoat77](https://stackoverflow.com/users/6509507/blackcoat77)1,32411 gold badge1414 silver badges2525 bronze badgesanswered Jul 15 '15 at 12:53[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/05bc06071ed6c39aa500aab3f7c175cf?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG\&f=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5048091/vinod-kirte)[Vinod Kirte](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5048091/vinod-kirte)18111 silver badge66 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)3

I know this is an old question but if you want a parseable PHP representation you could use:

```
$parseablePhpCode = var_export($yourVariable,true);
```

If you echo the exported code to a file.php (with a return statement) you may require it as

```
$yourVariable = require('file.php');
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/41445803)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/41445803/edit)answered Jan 3 '17 at 14:31[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/9b5fe7a66b12bbccd7910228a347f78a?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/411222/niclas)[Niclas](https://stackoverflow.com/users/411222/niclas)1,20633 gold badges1414 silver badges2525 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)0

I checked the answer however, (for each) in PHP is deprecated and no longer work with the latest php versions.

Usually we would convert an array into a string to log it somewhere, perhaps debugging or test etc.

I would convert the array into a string by doing:

> $Output = implied (",",$SourceArray);

Whereas:

$output is the result (where the string would be generated

",": is the separator (between each array field

$SourceArray: is your source array.

I hope this helps[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/56950880)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/56950880/edit)answered Jul 9 '19 at 10:48[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/af9e2baa06be7725bfe424202d875a80?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1915577/heider-sati)[Heider Sati](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1915577/heider-sati)1,4481313 silver badges2020 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)-2

Loop through and print all the values of an associative array, you could use a `foreach` loop, like this:

```
foreach($results as $x => $value) {
    echo $value;
}
```

[share](https://stackoverflow.com/a/50017889)[improve this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/posts/50017889/edit)answered Apr 25 '18 at 8:50[![](https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/fd9fa3ceaa75faa22c089e9b38b5c860?s=32\&d=identicon\&r=PG\&f=1)](https://stackoverflow.com/users/9412353/a-morales)[A. Morales](https://stackoverflow.com/users/9412353/a-morales)651212 bronze badges[add a comment](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9816889/how-to-echo-or-print-an-array-in-php)[**Highly active question**](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/protect-questions). Earn 10 reputation in order to answer this question. The reputation requirement helps protect this question from spam and non-answer activity.

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