archived-symfony-docs/components/var_dumper.rst

The VarDumper Component
=======================

    The VarDumper component provides mechanisms for extracting the state out of
    any PHP variables. Built on top, it provides a better ``dump()`` function
    that you can use instead of :phpfunction:`var_dump`.

Installation
------------

.. code-block:: terminal

    $ composer require --dev symfony/var-dumper

.. include:: /components/require_autoload.rst.inc

.. note::

    If using it inside a Symfony application, make sure that the DebugBundle has
    been installed (or run ``composer require --dev symfony/debug-bundle`` to install it).

.. _components-var-dumper-dump:

The dump() Function
-------------------

The VarDumper component creates a global ``dump()`` function that you can
use instead of e.g. :phpfunction:`var_dump`. By using it, you'll gain:

* Per object and resource types specialized view to e.g. filter out
  Doctrine internals while dumping a single proxy entity, or get more
  insight on opened files with :phpfunction:`stream_get_meta_data`;
* Configurable output formats: HTML or colored command line output;
* Ability to dump internal references, either soft ones (objects or
  resources) or hard ones (``=&`` on arrays or objects properties).
  Repeated occurrences of the same object/array/resource won't appear
  again and again anymore. Moreover, you'll be able to inspect the
  reference structure of your data;
* Ability to operate in the context of an output buffering handler.

For example::

    require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

    // create a variable, which could be anything!
    $someVar = ...;

    dump($someVar);

    // dump() returns the passed value, so you can dump an object and keep using it
    dump($someObject)->someMethod();

By default, the output format and destination are selected based on your
current PHP SAPI:

* On the command line (CLI SAPI), the output is written on ``STDOUT``. This
  can be surprising to some because this bypasses PHP's output buffering
  mechanism;
* On other SAPIs, dumps are written as HTML in the regular output.

.. tip::

    You can also select the output format explicitly defining the
    ``VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT`` environment variable and setting its value to either
    ``html``, ``cli`` or :ref:`server <var-dumper-dump-server-format>`.

.. note::

    If you want to catch the dump output as a string, please read the
    :ref:`advanced section <var-dumper-advanced>` which contains examples of
    it.
    You'll also learn how to change the format or redirect the output to
    wherever you want.

.. tip::

    In order to have the ``dump()`` function always available when running
    any PHP code, you can install it globally on your computer:

    #. Run ``composer global require symfony/var-dumper``;
    #. Add ``auto_prepend_file = ${HOME}/.composer/vendor/autoload.php``
       to your ``php.ini`` file;
    #. From time to time, run ``composer global update symfony/var-dumper``
       to have the latest bug fixes.

.. tip::

    The VarDumper component also provides a ``dd()`` ("dump and die") helper
    function. This function dumps the variables using ``dump()`` and
    immediately ends the execution of the script (using :phpfunction:`exit`).

.. _var-dumper-dump-server:

The Dump Server
---------------

The ``dump()`` function outputs its contents in the same browser window or
console terminal as your own application. Sometimes mixing the real output
with the debug output can be confusing. That's why this component provides a
server to collect all the dumped data.

Start the server with the ``server:dump`` command and whenever you call to
``dump()``, the dumped data won't be displayed in the output but sent to that
server, which outputs it to its own console or to an HTML file:

.. code-block:: terminal

    # displays the dumped data in the console:
    $ php bin/console server:dump
      [OK] Server listening on tcp://0.0.0.0:9912

    # stores the dumped data in a file using the HTML format:
    $ php bin/console server:dump --format=html > dump.html

Inside a Symfony application, the output of the dump server is configured with
the :ref:`dump_destination option <configuration-debug-dump_destination>` of the
``debug`` package:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # config/packages/debug.yaml
        debug:
           dump_destination: "tcp://%env(VAR_DUMPER_SERVER)%"

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- config/packages/debug.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xmlns:debug="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/debug"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/debug
                https://symfony.com/schema/dic/debug/debug-1.0.xsd"
        >
            <debug:config dump-destination="tcp://%env(VAR_DUMPER_SERVER)%"/>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // config/packages/debug.php
        namespace Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\Configurator;

        return static function (ContainerConfigurator $container): void {
            $container->extension('debug', [
                'dump_destination' => 'tcp://%env(VAR_DUMPER_SERVER)%',
            ]);
        };

Outside a Symfony application, use the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\ServerDumper` class::

    require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\ContextProvider\CliContextProvider;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\ContextProvider\SourceContextProvider;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\HtmlDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\ServerDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\VarDumper;

    $cloner = new VarCloner();
    $fallbackDumper = \in_array(\PHP_SAPI, ['cli', 'phpdbg']) ? new CliDumper() : new HtmlDumper();
    $dumper = new ServerDumper('tcp://127.0.0.1:9912', $fallbackDumper, [
        'cli' => new CliContextProvider(),
        'source' => new SourceContextProvider(),
    ]);

    VarDumper::setHandler(function (mixed $var) use ($cloner, $dumper): ?string {
        return $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($var));
    });

.. note::

    The second argument of :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\ServerDumper`
    is a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\DataDumperInterface` instance
    used as a fallback when the server is unreachable. The third argument are the
    context providers, which allow you to gather some info about the context in which the
    data was dumped. The built-in context providers are: ``cli``, ``request`` and ``source``.

Then you can use the following command to start a server out-of-the-box:

.. code-block:: terminal

     $ ./vendor/bin/var-dump-server
       [OK] Server listening on tcp://127.0.0.1:9912

.. _var-dumper-dump-server-format:

Configuring the Dump Server with Environment Variables
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you prefer to not modify the application configuration (e.g. to quickly debug
a project given to you) use the ``VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT`` env var.

First, start the server as usual:

.. code-block:: terminal

    $ ./vendor/bin/var-dump-server

Then, run your code with the ``VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT=server`` env var by configuring
this value in the :ref:`.env file of your application <config-env-vars>`. For
console commands, you can also define this env var as follows:

.. code-block:: terminal

    $ VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT=server [your-cli-command]

.. note::

    The host used by the ``server`` format is the one configured in the
    ``VAR_DUMPER_SERVER`` env var or ``127.0.0.1:9912`` if none is defined.
    If you prefer, you can also configure the host in the ``VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT``
    env var like this: ``VAR_DUMPER_FORMAT=tcp://127.0.0.1:1234``.

DebugBundle and Twig Integration
--------------------------------

The DebugBundle allows greater integration of this component into Symfony
applications.

Since generating (even debug) output in the controller or in the model
of your application may just break it by e.g. sending HTTP headers or
corrupting your view, the bundle configures the ``dump()`` function so that
variables are dumped in the web debug toolbar.

But if the toolbar cannot be displayed because you e.g. called
``die()``/``exit()``/``dd()`` or a fatal error occurred, then dumps are written
on the regular output.

In a Twig template, two constructs are available for dumping a variable.
Choosing between both is mostly a matter of personal taste, still:

* ``{% dump foo.bar %}`` is the way to go when the original template output
  shall not be modified: variables are not dumped inline, but in the web
  debug toolbar;
* on the contrary, ``{{ dump(foo.bar) }}`` dumps inline and thus may or not
  be suited to your use case (e.g. you shouldn't use it in an HTML
  attribute or a ``<script>`` tag).

This behavior can be changed by configuring the ``debug.dump_destination``
option. Read more about this and other options in
:doc:`the DebugBundle configuration reference </reference/configuration/debug>`.

.. tip::

    If the dumped contents are complex, consider using the local search box to
    look for specific variables or values. First, click anywhere on the dumped
    contents and then press ``Ctrl. + F`` or ``Cmd. + F`` to make the local
    search box appear. All the common shortcuts to navigate the search results
    are supported (``Ctrl. + G`` or ``Cmd. + G``, ``F3``, etc.) When
    finished, press ``Esc.`` to hide the box again.

    If you want to use your browser search input, press ``Ctrl. + F`` or
    ``Cmd. + F`` again while focusing on VarDumper's search input.

Using the VarDumper Component in your PHPUnit Test Suite
--------------------------------------------------------

The VarDumper component provides
:class:`a trait <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait>`
that can help writing some of your tests for PHPUnit.

This will provide you with two new assertions:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait::assertDumpEquals`
    verifies that the dump of the variable given as the second argument matches
    the expected dump provided as the first argument.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait::assertDumpMatchesFormat`
    is like the previous method but accepts placeholders in the expected dump,
    based on the ``assertStringMatchesFormat()`` method provided by PHPUnit.

The ``VarDumperTestTrait`` also includes these other methods:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait::setUpVarDumper`
    is used to configure the available casters and their options, which is a way
    to only control the fields you're expecting and allows writing concise tests.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait::tearDownVarDumper`
    is called automatically after each case to reset the custom configuration
    made in ``setUpVarDumper()``.

Example::

    use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Test\VarDumperTestTrait;

    class ExampleTest extends TestCase
    {
        use VarDumperTestTrait;

        protected function setUp(): void
        {
            $casters = [
                \DateTimeInterface::class => static function (\DateTimeInterface $date, array $a, Stub $stub): array {
                    $stub->class = 'DateTime';
                    return ['date' => $date->format('d/m/Y')];
                },
            ];

            $flags = CliDumper::DUMP_LIGHT_ARRAY | CliDumper::DUMP_COMMA_SEPARATOR;

            // this configures the casters & flags to use for all the tests in this class.
            // If you need custom configurations per test rather than for the whole class,
            // call this setUpVarDumper() method from those tests instead.
            $this->setUpVarDumper($casters, $flags);
        }

        public function testWithDumpEquals(): void
        {
            $testedVar = [123, 'foo'];

            // the expected dump contents don't have the default VarDumper structure
            // because of the custom casters and flags used in the test
            $expectedDump = <<<EOTXT
    [
      123,
      "foo",
    ]
    EOTXT;

            // if the first argument is a string, it must be the whole expected dump
            $this->assertDumpEquals($expectedDump, $testedVar);

            // if the first argument is not a string, assertDumpEquals() dumps it
            // and compares it with the dump of the second argument
            $this->assertDumpEquals($testedVar, $testedVar);
        }
    }

Dump Examples and Output
------------------------

For simple variables, reading the output should be straightforward.
Here are some examples showing first a variable defined in PHP,
then its dump representation::

    $var = [
        'a simple string' => "in an array of 5 elements",
        'a float' => 1.0,
        'an integer' => 1,
        'a boolean' => true,
        'an empty array' => [],
    ];
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/01-simple.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the array with length five and all keys and values.

.. note::

    The gray arrow is a toggle button for hiding/showing children of
    nested structures.

.. code-block:: php

    $var = "This is a multi-line string.\n";
    $var .= "Hovering a string shows its length.\n";
    $var .= "The length of UTF-8 strings is counted in terms of UTF-8 characters.\n";
    $var .= "Non-UTF-8 strings length are counted in octet size.\n";
    $var .= "Because of this `\xE9` octet (\\xE9),\n";
    $var .= "this string is not UTF-8 valid, thus the `b` prefix.\n";
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/02-multi-line-str.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the string on multiple lines in between three quotes.

.. code-block:: php

    class PropertyExample
    {
        public string $publicProperty = 'The `+` prefix denotes public properties,';
        protected string $protectedProperty = '`#` protected ones and `-` private ones.';
        private string $privateProperty = 'Hovering a property shows a reminder.';
    }

    $var = new PropertyExample();
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/03-object.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the PropertyExample object and all three properties with their values.

.. note::

    ``#14`` is the internal object handle. It allows comparing two
    consecutive dumps of the same object.

.. code-block:: php

    class DynamicPropertyExample
    {
        public string $declaredProperty = 'This property is declared in the class definition';
    }

    $var = new DynamicPropertyExample();
    $var->undeclaredProperty = 'Runtime added dynamic properties have `"` around their name.';
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/04-dynamic-property.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the DynamicPropertyExample object and both declared and undeclared properties with their values.

.. code-block:: php

    class ReferenceExample
    {
        public string $info = "Circular and sibling references are displayed as `#number`.\nHovering them highlights all instances in the same dump.\n";
    }
    $var = new ReferenceExample();
    $var->aCircularReference = $var;
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/05-soft-ref.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the "aCircularReference" property value referencing the parent object, instead of showing all properties again.

.. code-block:: php

    $var = new \ErrorException(
        "For some objects, properties have special values\n"
        ."that are best represented as constants, like\n"
        ."`severity` below. Hovering displays the value (`2`).\n",
        0,
        E_WARNING
    );
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/06-constants.png
    :alt: Dump output with the "E_WARNING" constant shown as value of "severity".

.. code-block:: php

    $var = [];
    $var[0] = 1;
    $var[1] =& $var[0];
    $var[1] += 1;
    $var[2] = ["Hard references (circular or sibling)"];
    $var[3] =& $var[2];
    $var[3][] = "are dumped using `&number` prefixes.";
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/07-hard-ref.png
    :alt: Dump output showing the referenced arrays.

.. code-block:: php

    $var = new \ArrayObject();
    $var[] = "Some resources and special objects like the current";
    $var[] = "one are sometimes best represented using virtual";
    $var[] = "properties that describe their internal state.";
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/08-virtual-property.png
    :alt: Dump output of the ArrayObject.

.. code-block:: php

    $var = new AcmeController(
        "When a dump goes over its maximum items limit,\n"
        ."or when some special objects are encountered,\n"
        ."children can be replaced by an ellipsis and\n"
        ."optionally followed by a number that says how\n"
        ."many have been removed; `9` in this case.\n"
    );
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/09-cut.png
    :alt: Dump output where the children of the Container object are hidden.

.. code-block:: php

    class Foo
    {
        // $foo is uninitialized, which is different from being null
        private int|float $foo;
        public ?string $baz = null;
    }

    $var = new Foo();
    dump($var);

.. image:: /_images/components/var_dumper/10-uninitialized.png
    :alt: Dump output where the uninitialized property is represented by a question mark followed by the type definition.

.. _var-dumper-advanced:

Advanced Usage
--------------

The ``dump()`` function is just a thin wrapper and a more convenient way to call
:method:`VarDumper::dump() <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\VarDumper::dump>`.
You can change the behavior of this function by calling
:method:`VarDumper::setHandler($callable) <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\VarDumper::setHandler>`.
Calls to ``dump()`` will then be forwarded to ``$callable``.

By adding a handler, you can customize the `Cloners`_, `Dumpers`_ and `Casters`_
as explained below. A simple implementation of a handler function might look
like this::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\HtmlDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\VarDumper;

    VarDumper::setHandler(function (mixed $var): ?string {
        $cloner = new VarCloner();
        $dumper = 'cli' === PHP_SAPI ? new CliDumper() : new HtmlDumper();

        return $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($var));
    });

Cloners
~~~~~~~

A cloner is used to create an intermediate representation of any PHP variable.
Its output is a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data`
object that wraps this representation.

You can create a ``Data`` object this way::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;

    $cloner = new VarCloner();
    $data = $cloner->cloneVar($myVar);
    // this is commonly then passed to the dumper
    // see the example at the top of this page
    // $dumper->dump($data);

Whatever the cloned data structure, resulting ``Data`` objects are always
serializable.

A cloner applies limits when creating the representation, so that one
can represent only a subset of the cloned variable.
Before calling :method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\VarCloner::cloneVar`,
you can configure these limits:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\VarCloner::setMaxItems`
    Configures the maximum number of items that will be cloned
    *past the minimum nesting depth*. Items are counted using a breadth-first
    algorithm so that lower level items have higher priority than deeply nested
    items. Specifying ``-1`` removes the limit.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\VarCloner::setMinDepth`
    Configures the minimum tree depth where we are guaranteed to clone
    all the items. After this depth is reached, only ``setMaxItems``
    items will be cloned. The default value is ``1``, which is consistent
    with older Symfony versions.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\VarCloner::setMaxString`
    Configures the maximum number of characters that will be cloned before
    cutting overlong strings.  Specifying ``-1`` removes the limit.

Before dumping it, you can further limit the resulting
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data` object using the following methods:

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data::withMaxDepth`
    Limits dumps in the depth dimension.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data::withMaxItemsPerDepth`
    Limits the number of items per depth level.

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data::withRefHandles`
    Removes internal objects' handles for sparser output (useful for tests).

:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data::seek`
    Selects only sub-parts of already cloned arrays, objects or resources.

Unlike the previous limits on cloners that remove data on purpose, these can
be changed back and forth before dumping since they do not affect the
intermediate representation internally.

.. note::

    When no limit is applied, a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data`
    object is as accurate as the native :phpfunction:`serialize` function,
    and thus could be used for purposes beyond debugging.

Dumpers
~~~~~~~

A dumper is responsible for outputting a string representation of a PHP variable,
using a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data` object as input.
The destination and the formatting of this output vary with dumpers.

This component comes with an :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\HtmlDumper`
for HTML output and a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\CliDumper`
for optionally colored command line output.

For example, if you want to dump some ``$variable``, do::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $cloner = new VarCloner();
    $dumper = new CliDumper();

    $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($variable));

By using the first argument of the constructor, you can select the output
stream where the dump will be written. By default, the ``CliDumper`` writes
on ``php://stdout`` and the ``HtmlDumper`` on ``php://output``. But any PHP
stream (resource or URL) is acceptable.

Instead of a stream destination, you can also pass it a ``callable`` that
will be called repeatedly for each line generated by a dumper. This
callable can be configured using the first argument of a dumper's constructor,
but also using the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\AbstractDumper::setOutput`
method or the second argument of the
:method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\AbstractDumper::dump` method.

For example, to get a dump as a string in a variable, you can do::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $cloner = new VarCloner();
    $dumper = new CliDumper();
    $output = '';

    $dumper->dump(
        $cloner->cloneVar($variable),
        function (string $line, int $depth) use (&$output): void {
            // A negative depth means "end of dump"
            if ($depth >= 0) {
                // Adds a two spaces indentation to the line
                $output .= str_repeat('  ', $depth).$line."\n";
            }
        }
    );

    // $output is now populated with the dump representation of $variable

Another option for doing the same could be::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $cloner = new VarCloner();
    $dumper = new CliDumper();
    $output = fopen('php://memory', 'r+b');

    $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($variable), $output);
    $output = stream_get_contents($output, -1, 0);

    // $output is now populated with the dump representation of $variable

.. tip::

    You can pass ``true`` to the second argument of the
    :method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\AbstractDumper::dump`
    method to make it return the dump as a string::

        $output = $dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($variable), true);

Dumpers implement the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\DataDumperInterface`
interface that specifies the
:method:`dump(Data $data) <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\DataDumperInterface::dump>`
method. They also typically implement the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\DumperInterface` that frees
them from re-implementing the logic required to walk through a
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data` object's internal structure.

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\HtmlDumper` uses a dark
theme by default. Use the :method:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\HtmlDumper::setTheme`
method to use a light theme::

    // ...
    $htmlDumper->setTheme('light');

The :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\HtmlDumper` limits string
length and nesting depth of the output to make it more readable. These options
can be overridden by the third optional parameter of the
:method:`dump(Data $data) <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Dumper\\DataDumperInterface::dump>`
method::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\HtmlDumper;

    $output = fopen('php://memory', 'r+b');

    $dumper = new HtmlDumper();
    $dumper->dump($var, $output, [
        // 1 and 160 are the default values for these options
        'maxDepth' => 1,
        'maxStringLength' => 160,
    ]);

The output format of a dumper can be fine tuned by the two flags
``DUMP_STRING_LENGTH`` and ``DUMP_LIGHT_ARRAY`` which are passed as a bitmap
in the third constructor argument. They can also be set via environment
variables when using
:method:`assertDumpEquals($dump, $data, $filter, $message) <Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Test\\VarDumperTestTrait::assertDumpEquals>`
during unit testing.

The ``$filter`` argument of ``assertDumpEquals()`` can be used to pass a
bit field of ``Caster::EXCLUDE_*`` constants and influences the expected
output produced by the different casters.

If ``DUMP_STRING_LENGTH`` is set, then the length of a string is displayed
next to its content::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\AbstractDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $varCloner = new VarCloner();
    $var = ['test'];

    $dumper = new CliDumper();
    echo $dumper->dump($varCloner->cloneVar($var), true);

    // array:1 [
    //   0 => "test"
    // ]

    $dumper = new CliDumper(null, null, AbstractDumper::DUMP_STRING_LENGTH);
    echo $dumper->dump($varCloner->cloneVar($var), true);

    // (added string length before the string)
    // array:1 [
    //   0 => (4) "test"
    // ]

If ``DUMP_LIGHT_ARRAY`` is set, then arrays are dumped in a shortened format
similar to PHP's short array notation::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\AbstractDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $varCloner = new VarCloner();
    $var = ['test'];

    $dumper = new CliDumper();
    echo $dumper->dump($varCloner->cloneVar($var), true);

    // array:1 [
    //   0 => "test"
    // ]

    $dumper = new CliDumper(null, null, AbstractDumper::DUMP_LIGHT_ARRAY);
    echo $dumper->dump($varCloner->cloneVar($var), true);

    // (no more array:1 prefix)
    // [
    //   0 => "test"
    // ]

If you would like to use both options, then you can combine them by
using the logical OR operator ``|``::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\AbstractDumper;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper;

    $varCloner = new VarCloner();
    $var = ['test'];

    $dumper = new CliDumper(null, null, AbstractDumper::DUMP_STRING_LENGTH | AbstractDumper::DUMP_LIGHT_ARRAY);
    echo $dumper->dump($varCloner->cloneVar($var), true);

    // [
    //   0 => (4) "test"
    // ]

Casters
~~~~~~~

Objects and resources nested in a PHP variable are "cast" to arrays in the
intermediate :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Data`
representation. You can customize the array representation for each object/resource
by hooking a Caster into this process. The component already includes many
casters for base PHP classes and other common classes.

If you want to build your own Caster, you can register one before cloning
a PHP variable. Casters are registered using either a Cloner's constructor
or its ``addCasters()`` method::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner;

    $myCasters = [...];
    $cloner = new VarCloner($myCasters);

    // or

    $cloner->addCasters($myCasters);

The provided ``$myCasters`` argument is an array that maps a class,
an interface or a resource type to a callable::

    $myCasters = [
        'FooClass' => $myFooClassCallableCaster,
        ':bar resource' => $myBarResourceCallableCaster,
    ];

As you can notice, resource types are prefixed by a ``:`` to prevent
colliding with a class name.

Because an object has one main class and potentially many parent classes
or interfaces, many casters can be applied to one object. In this case,
casters are called one after the other, starting from casters bound to the
interfaces, the parents classes and then the main class. Several casters
can also be registered for the same resource type/class/interface.
They are called in registration order.

Casters are responsible for returning the properties of the object or resource
being cloned in an array. They are callables that accept five arguments:

* the object or resource being cast;
* an array modeled for objects after PHP's native ``(array)`` cast operator;
* a :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Cloner\\Stub` object
  representing the main properties of the object (class, type, etc.);
* true/false when the caster is called nested in a structure or not;
* A bit field of :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\Caster` ``::EXCLUDE_*``
  constants.

Here is a simple caster not doing anything::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\Stub;

    function myCaster(mixed $object, array $array, Stub $stub, bool $isNested, int $filter): array
    {
        // ... populate/alter $array to your needs

        return $array;
    }

For objects, the ``$array`` parameter comes pre-populated using PHP's native
``(array)`` casting operator or with the return value of ``$object->__debugInfo()``
if the magic method exists. Then, the return value of one Caster is given
as the array argument to the next Caster in the chain.

When casting with the ``(array)`` operator, PHP prefixes protected properties
with a ``\0*\0`` and private ones with the class owning the property. For example,
``\0Foobar\0`` will be the prefix for all private properties of objects of
type Foobar. Casters follow this convention and add two more prefixes: ``\0~\0``
is used for virtual properties and ``\0+\0`` for dynamic ones (runtime added
properties not in the class declaration).

.. note::

    Although you can, it is advised to not alter the state of an object
    while casting it in a Caster.

.. tip::

    Before writing your own casters, you should check the existing ones.

Adding Semantics with Metadata
..............................

Since casters are hooked on specific classes or interfaces, they know about the
objects they manipulate. By altering the ``$stub`` object (the third argument of
any caster), one can transfer this knowledge to the resulting ``Data`` object,
thus to dumpers. To help you do this (see the source code for how it works),
the component comes with a set of wrappers for common additional semantics. You
can use:

* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\ConstStub` to wrap a value that is
  best represented by a PHP constant;
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\ClassStub` to wrap a PHP identifier
  (*i.e.* a class name, a method name, an interface, *etc.*);
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\CutStub` to replace big noisy
  objects/strings/*etc.* by ellipses;
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\CutArrayStub` to keep only some
  useful keys of an array;
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\ImgStub` to wrap an image;
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\EnumStub` to wrap a set of virtual
  values (*i.e.* values that do not exist as properties in the original PHP data
  structure, but are worth listing alongside with real ones);
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\LinkStub` to wrap strings that can
  be turned into links by dumpers;
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\TraceStub` and their
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\FrameStub` and
* :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\ArgsStub` relatives to wrap PHP
  traces (used by :class:`Symfony\\Component\\VarDumper\\Caster\\ExceptionCaster`).

For example, if you know that your ``Product`` objects have a ``brochure`` property
that holds a file name or a URL, you can wrap them in a ``LinkStub`` to tell
``HtmlDumper`` to make them clickable::

    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Caster\LinkStub;
    use Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\Stub;

    function ProductCaster(Product $object, array $array, Stub $stub, bool $isNested, int $filter = 0): array
    {
        $array['brochure'] = new LinkStub($array['brochure']);

        return $array;
    }