Chevere

# VarDump

VarDump

The Chevere\VarDump package provides an alternative to var_dump (opens new window) with a richer feature set, including formatting for the generation of a myriad of dump documents.

# Installing

VarDump is available through Packagist (opens new window) and the repository source is at GitHub (opens new window).

composer require chevere/var-dump

# Demo

HTML demo

# Helpers

💡 TL;DR: You can replace var_dump using the following helpers:

# VarDump (vd)

Function vd is a drop-in replacement for var_dump. It prints information about one or more variables to the output stream.

vd($var1, $var2,);
// more code

# VarDump and die (vdd)

Function vdd does same as vd, but with die(0) which halts further execution.

vdd($var);
// exit()

# Instances

The following helper functions can be used to save boilerplate when needing to initialize a VarDump instance.

  • Namespace Chevere\VarDump
    • varDumpPlain to return a plain var dump
    • varDumpConsole to return a console var dump
    • varDumpHtml to return a HTML var dump
    • getVarDump to retrieve the var dump instance
    • getVarDumpWriters to retrieve the var dump writers

# Customizing output stream

By declaring Chevere/VarDump/VarDumpInstance you can change the default stream used by VarDump, including helpers vd and vdd.

# Initialization

A VarDump needs a format and an output. In the example below a VarDump is created with console colored formatting and output:

use Chevere\VarDump\Formats\ConsoleFormat;
use Chevere\VarDump\Outputs\ConsoleOutput;
use Chevere\VarDump\VarDump;
use function Chevere\VarDump\varDumpConsole;

$varDump = new VarDump(
    formatter: new VarDumpConsoleFormat,
    outputter: new VarDumpConsoleOutput
);
// Same as:
$varDump = varDumpConsole();

# Passing variables

The method withVars is used to pass ...$variables (variadic).

$varDump = $varDump->withVars('a var', [], null);

# Shifting traces

The dump information could be affected by layers on top of VarDump, the method withShift can be used to indicate how many previous backtrace should be removed.

$varDump = $varDump->withShift(1); // removes the first trace

# Process

The method process is used to trigger the var dumping process. It requires to pass a writer where the dump information will be written.

use Chevere\Writer\StreamWriter;
use function Chevere\Writer\streamFor;

$varDump->process(
    writer: new StreamWriter(streamFor('php://stdout', 'w'))
);