<p>I personally use <a href="http://php.net/var_dump" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>var_dump</code></a>, but lots of people like <a href="http://php.net/print_r" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>print_r</code></a>. </p>

<p>What does everyone use? Pros and Cons?</p>

<p>Does someone have a special home brew function of their own?</p>

I use
```
print_r()
```
because I like the pretty array structure... but
```
var_dump
```
does give you a bit more information (like types)
```
```
$obj = (object) array(1, 2, 3);

// output of var_dump:
object(stdClass)#1 (3) {
  [0]=>
  int(1)
  [1]=>
  int(2)
  [2]=>
  int(3)
}

// output of print_r
stdClass Object
(
  [0] => 1
  [1] => 2
  [2] => 3
)
```
```