gregorj/to-string

A simple PHP library for turning values into readable strings.

v1.0.0 2026-04-07 13:53 UTC

Requires

• php: ^8.1

Requires (Dev)

• phpstan/phpstan: ^2.1
• phpunit/phpunit: ^10.5
• squizlabs/php_codesniffer: ^4.0

MIT

• Gregor

README

This is a simple PHP library for turning values into readable strings. Its main purpose is to make strings and byte data printable by escaping non-printable characters instead of returning raw control bytes. This means, binary data is supported.

The library currently provides helpers for:

• booleans
• bytes
• strings
• arrays
• generic mixed values

Installation

composer require gregorj/to-string

Usage

<?php

use GregorJ\ToString\ToString;

echo ToString::fromAny(true);
// true

echo ToString::fromAny("hello\nworld");
// hello\nworld

echo ToString::fromAny(['name' => 'Hello', 'value' => 2.7, 'nothing' => null]);
// [name: "Hello", value: 2.7, nothing: null]

echo ToString::fromAny(new stdClass());
// stdClass

Limitations

• Array output is currently designed for human readability, not for parsing back into PHP.
• Recursive/self-referencing arrays are currently not supported.