wtf()

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Here is a little debugging function I wrote - it gets used way more than I'd like it to. This is basically a "fancy" print_r() for inspecting objects - the advantages are that it highlights the code, has the ability to supress the display of subobjects, and is a lot faster than typing

1. <?='<pre>'.print_r($var).'</pre>'; ?>

It's also fun to type wtf(), because that is usually what you are thinking when you're trying to debug something.

1. <?php
3. /*
4. Seriously, wtf?
5. */
6. function wtf($var, $arrayOfObjectsToHide=array(), $fontSize=11)
7. {
8. $text = print_r($var, true);
9. $text = str_replace('<', '&lt;', $text);
10. $text = str_replace('>', '>', $text);
12. foreach ($arrayOfObjectsToHide as $objectName) {
13. $searchPattern = '#(\W'.$objectName.' Object\n(\s+)\().*?\n\2\)\n#s';
14. $replace = "$1<span style=\"color: #FF9900;\">";
15. $replace .= "--&gt; HIDDEN - courtesy of wtf() &lt;--</span>)";
16. $text = preg_replace($searchPattern, $replace, $text);
17. }
19. // color code objects
20. $text = preg_replace(
21. '#(\w+)(\s+Object\s+\()#s',
22. '<span style="color: #079700;">$1</span>$2',
23. $text
24. );
25. // color code object properties
26. $pattern = '#\[(\w+)\:(public|private|protected)\]#';
27. $replace = '[<span style="color: #000099;">$1</span>:';
28. $replace .= '<span style="color: #009999;">$2</span>]'
29. $text = preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $text);
31. echo '<pre style="
32. font-size: '.$fontSize.'px;
33. line-height: '.$fontSize.'px;
34. background-color: #fff; padding: 10px;
35. ">'.$text.'</pre>
36. ';
37. }

Example:

1. <?php
3. class Buggy
4. {
5. public $foo;
6. protected $bar;
7. private $baz;
9. public function __construct()
10. {
11. $this->foo = 'no foo for you';
12. $this->bar = range(1, 10);
13. $this->baz = new Buggier;
14. }
15. }
17. class Buggier
18. {
19. protected $errors;
21. public function __construct()
22. {
23. $this->errors = range(1,1000); // oh noes!
24. }
25. }
27. $buggy = new Buggy;
28. wtf($buggy, array('Buggier'));

Prints Out:

Buggy Object
(
    [foo] => no foo for you
    [bar:protected] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
            [1] => 2
            [2] => 3
            [3] => 4
            [4] => 5
            [5] => 6
            [6] => 7
            [7] => 8
            [8] => 9
            [9] => 10
        )

    [baz:private] => Buggier Object
        (--> HIDDEN - courtesy of wtf() <--)
)