Debug functions for PHP

A collection of simple debug functions which might be helpful in case a full-fledged debugger is not available.

Requirements

The following versions of PHP are supported:

• PHP 7.2
• PHP 7.3
• PHP 7.4

Installation

composer install --dev fabacino/debug-functions

Usage

• dbg: Print out debug value.
• dbgr: Return debug value.
• dbglog: Log debug value into file.
• dbginit: Initialize debug settings.

The functions accept any value for debugging, as long as it can be passed as a variable.

Examples

Print values to standard output

dbg(123);
dbg('a string');
dbg([
    'token' => 'dp83kspo',
    'is_default' => true
]);

// Output
123
a string
Array
(
    [token] => dp83kspo
    [is_default] => true
)

When running in a non-CLI environment the ouput is wrapped around pre tags for better formatting.

Use dbginit or the flag USE_VARDUMP in case you prefer var_dump:

dbginit(['use_vardump' => true]);
dbg(123);
// or
dbg(123, Debug::USE_VARDUMP);
// which is the same as
dbg(123, 1);

// Output
int(123)
string(8) "a string"
array(2) {
  'token' => string(8) "dp83kspo"
  'is_default' => bool(true)
}

Use dbginit or the flag USE_HTMLENTITIES in case you want to encode HTML entities:

dbginit(['use_htmlentities' => true]);
dbg('<b>important</b>');
// or
dbg('<b>important</b>', Debug::USE_HTMLENTITIES);
// which is the same as
dbg('<b>important</b>', 2);

// Output
<b>important</b>

Save debug output in variable

// dbgr is the same as dbg, except that the output is returned instead of printed.
$dbg = dbgr(123);

Log debug output to file

// dbglog is the same as dbg, except that the output is logged instead of printed.
dbginit(['log_file' => '/path/to/logfile']);
dbglog($this->doSomething());

Alternatively you can pass your own PSR-3 compatible logger:

$logger = new YourLogger();
...
dbginit(['logger' => $logger]);
dbglog($this->doSomething());

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.