php drives me to insanity

gistfile1.txt

$ cat test.php
<?php

// Dear php, please give me a function which will show the type of
// the variable, without capturing output buffer myself..

$x = floor('1.2');
echo 'var_export:'.var_export($x, true)."\n";
echo 'print_r:'.print_r($x, true)."\n";
echo 'var_dump:';
var_dump($x);

$ php test.php
var_export:1
print_r:1
var_dump:double(1)