New in Symfony 2.6: VarDumper component

Contributed by
Nicolas Grekas
in #10640.

Although Symfony 2.6.0 was released a few days ago, there are still some new and noteworthy features that haven't been explained in this blog. The most important of those missing features is the addition of a new component called VarDumper.

VarDumper component aims to replace the well-known var_dump() PHP function with a more modern and fully-featured alternative called dump(). Before using it, make sure that the DebugBundle bundle is enabled in the application's kernel:

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// app/AppKernel.php
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Kernel;
use Symfony\Component\Config\Loader\LoaderInterface;

class AppKernel extends Kernel
{
    public function registerBundles()
    {
        $bundles = array(
            // ...
        );

        if (in_array($this->getEnvironment(), array('dev', 'test'))) {
            $bundles[] = new Symfony\Bundle\DebugBundle\DebugBundle();
            // ...
        }
    }

    // ...
}

Now you can replace all your var_dump() calls with the new and shorter dump() function. Unlike var_dump(), you can safely use dump() to display the contents of any variable, including complex variables with circular references such as Doctrine entities.

Consider for example this controller that dumps the full Symfony container and the full Request object:

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namespace AppBundle\Controller;

use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller;

class DefaultController extends Controller
{
    public function indexAction(Request $request)
    {
        dump($this->container, $request);
        // ...
    }
}

When displaying this controller in a browser, you'll see a new panel called dump which captures all the dumped variables and shows a preview of their contents:

Click on the dumper panel and you'll get the full detail of those variables, including information about references, public/protected/private properties and methods, unlimited nesting level, etc.:

In addition to the seamless integration with the Symfony Web Debug Toolbar, the component is smart enough to detect if you are using exit or die() in your code. In those cases, variable dumps are written on the regular output.

VarDumper component also includes the {% dump %} tag and the {{ dump() }} function for inspecting variables directly from the Twig templates. The {% dump %} tag dumps variables to the web debug toolbar (e.g {% dump variable1, variable2 %}), which is the best alternative when the output of the original template shall not be modified.

On the contrary, the {{ dump() }} function dumps variables inline, so their contents are displayed alongside the regular template contents (e.g {{ dump(variable1, variable2) }}).

VarDumper component is natively available since 2.6.0, but if some of your projects are stuck in Symfony 2.3, 2.4 or 2.5 versions, you can install the backported debug-bundle as follows:

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$ composer require --dev tchwork/debug-bundle

Lastly, don't forget to check out the documentation of VarDumper component, including the advanced Usage of the VarDumper Component article.