- var_export: documentation ( source)
- json_encode: documentation ( source)
<?php
// depth 1
$a = new \stdClass();
// depth 2
$b = new \stdClass();
$b->x = $a;
// depth 3
$c = new \stdClass();
$c->x = [$a];
var_export(json_encode($a, 0, 0)); echo "\n";
var_export(json_encode($b, 0, 1)); echo "\n";
var_export(json_encode($c, 0, 2));