PHP Empty string of length 32
php, string, var-dump
Solution
Since you’re viewing the output in a browser, it still parses the HTML in each string as HTML and you don’t see it on the rendered page. `var_dump` doesn’t do HTML-encoding.
As you found out, it works in your page’s source. :)
Problem
EDIT: The string was being outputted and interpreted by the browser. Silly mistake. In my project, I have created a class to generate the HTML tags I need, rather echo them all out myself. I have a function called `generateTag($control, $isCardValue = true)` in a php class called `Card`. This function generates an HTML tag based on the properties passed through the array parameter `$control`. Here is what the function looks like: ``` public function generateTag($control, $isCardValue = true) { if ($isCardValue) { // First we convert the 'class' element to an array if (isset($control['class']) && gettype($control['class']) !== 'array') { $control['class'] = array($control['class']); } // Then we add the 'card-value' class to that array. $control['class'][] = 'card-value'; } // The tag key is mandatory $tag = '<' . $control['tag']; // All keys other than 'tag' & 'content' are considered attributes for the HTML tag. foreach ($control as $key => $value) { switch ($key) { case 'tag': break; case 'content': break; default: if (gettype($value) === 'array') { $tag .= ' ' . $key . '="' . implode(' ', $value) . '"'; } elseif (gettype($value) === 'NULL') { $tag .= ' ' . $key; } else { $tag .= ' ' . $key . '="' . $value . '"'; } break; } } $tag .= '>'; // If the 'content' key is not passed through $control, we assume that the tag // doesn't need to be closed (e.g. <input> doesn't need a closing tag) if (isset($control['content'])) { if (gettype($control['content']) === 'array') { foreach ($control['content'] as $child) { $tag .= $this->generateTag($child); } } else { $tag .= $control['content']; } $tag .= '</' . $control['tag'] . '>'; } return $tag; } ``` I use this function to create all the `<option>` tags for a `<select>` box. I simply loop through an array to generate the tags: ``` foreach ($lists['tags'] as $key => $tag) { $tag_options[$key] = array( 'tag' => 'option', 'value' => $tag['tag_id'], 'content' => $tag['tag_name_en'], ); var_dump($card->generateTag($tag_options[$key], false)); } ``` This is where things get weird. I call a var_dump on the generated string and I get the following output: ``` string(32) "" string(35) "" string(33) "" string(33) "" string(38) "" string(32) "" string(42) "" string(30) "" string(41) "" string(34) "" string(35) "" string(34) "" string(29) "" string(36) "" string(37) "" string(31) "" string(36) "" string(67) "" string(36) "" string(33) "" string(36) "" string(36) "" ``` It appears that it's creating an empty string of length ~35? The weirdest thing is that when I call a `substr($tag_options[$key], 0, 1)`, it gives me `<` as it should. But when I call `substr($tag_options[$key], 0, 2)`, it gives me the "empty" string of length 2. Any insight on what's going on?