Best Debug PHP Function Around

When it comes to PHP debugging… You like to know what’s going on don’t you! So you are tired or using  var_dump($myVar) because the printout is messed up with your HTML? Here is the Grail: a beautiful Debug PHP Function.

This one will display the complete set of calls (backtrace) as well as the variable/class/array to print out, in a flashy Yellow/Purple/Red/Cyan color set different for each type of variable. The z-index or 999 and the set of styles associated will make sure that it’s always visible.

Debug PHP Function

function wtf(){
  $args = func_get_args();
  $backtrace = debug_backtrace();
  $file = file($backtrace[0]['file']);
  $src  = $file[$backtrace[0]['line']-1];  // select debug($varname) line where it has been called
  $pat  = '#(.*)'.__FUNCTION__.' *?\( *?\$(.*) *?\)(.*)#i';  // search pattern for wtf(parameter)
  $arguments  = trim(preg_replace($pat, '$2', $src));  // extract arguments pattern
  $args_arr = array_map('trim', explode(',', $arguments));

  print '<style>
  div.debug {visible; clear: both; display: table; width: 100%; font-family: Courier,monospace; border: medium solid red; background-color: yellow; border-spacing: 5px; z-index: 999;}
  div.debug > div {display: unset; margin: 5px; border-spacing: 5px; padding: 5px;}
  div.debug .cell {display: inline-flex; padding: 5px; white-space: pre-wrap;}
  div.debug .left-cell {float: left; background-color: Violet;}
  div.debug .array {color: RebeccaPurple; background-color: Violet;}
  div.debug .object pre {color: DodgerBlue; background-color: PowderBlue;}
  div.debug .variable pre {color: RebeccaPurple; background-color: LightGoldenRodYellow;}
  div.debug pre {white-space: pre-wrap;}
  </style>'.PHP_EOL;
  print '<div class="debug">'.PHP_EOL;
  foreach ($args as $key => $arg) {
    print '<div><div class="left-cell cell"><b>';
    array_walk(debug_backtrace(),create_function('$a,$b','print "{$a[\'function\']}()(".basename($a[\'file\']).":{$a[\'line\']})<br> ";'));
    print '</b></div>'.PHP_EOL;
    if (is_array($arg)) {
      print '<div class="cell array"><b>'.$args_arr[$key].' = </b>';
      print_r(htmlspecialchars(print_r($arg)), ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');
      print '</div>'.PHP_EOL;
    } elseif (is_object($arg)) {
      print '<div class="cell object"><pre><b>'.$args_arr[$key].' = </b>';
      print_r(htmlspecialchars(print_r(var_dump($arg))), ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');
      print '</pre></div>'.PHP_EOL;
    } else {
      print '<div class="cell variable"><pre><b>'.$args_arr[$key].' = </b>&gt;';
      print_r(htmlspecialchars($arg, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8').'&lt;');
      print '</pre></div>'.PHP_EOL;
    }
    print '</div>'.PHP_EOL;
  }
  print '</div>'.PHP_EOL;
}

Usage example:

<div class="dmbs-footer">
    <?php
        global $dm_settings;
        wtf($dm_settings);
        ...

Output:

Terribly flashy isn’t it, so you cannot miss it ????

❌

◀️ ▶️