PHP Print "null" instead of nothing

Question

I'd like to ask if it's possible to print "null" instead of nothingness in php8. Let me explain:

$player = null;
echo $player;

What it prints:
What I want: null

Answer 1

Depending on what "nothingness" means to you, you could use one of the following:

echo $player ?? 'null'; // null coalescing operator

// or

echo $player ? $player : 'null'; // ternary operator

// or

echo !empty($player) ? $player : 'null'; // ternary operator with empty() check, which will not throw an error when the $player variable does not exist 

// or

echo $player ?: 'null'; // ternary operator shorthand

More info here: PHP ternary operator vs null coalescing operator