__repr() magic method (was Re: Proposal: short_var_export($value, bool $return=false, int $flags=0))

It seems inconsistent and prone to bugs when refactoring (e.g. converting to string and not using the result)
to have two functions named var_export where one prints by default and the other doesn't, but otherwise .
Changing to a different name entirely would solve that, such as var_repr(), var_representation(), serialize_[value_]as_php_snippet(), etc.

I am considering to try and introduce a __repr() magic method that is
similar to the repr() method from Python. Having a var_repr() method
which does not use the __repr() method would be confusing. So I would
like to suggest not to use that name.

As the intent of the resulting string is to obtain PHP code that will
construct the variable, another option might be: var_constructor().

Regards,
Dik Takken

Taking this to a new thread so I don’t derail the short_var_export() thread.

Dik, I like this addition, but I think the name “repr” might be confusing to PHP developers who aren’t familiar with Python idioms. PHP function names and coding standards within the community tend to lean more toward verbosity than terseness, when it comes to naming things.

Perhaps we should follow the lead of __toString() and use __toRepresentation()? Maybe also introduce a Representable interface, like Stringable? https://wiki.php.net/rfc/stringable

Cheers,
Ben