Req #47453 [Opn->Spm]: A new language construct for var_dump'ing and returning a value

Edit report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=47453&edit=1 ID: 47453 Updated by: jani@php.net Reported by: Progman2002 at gmx dot de Summary: A new language construct for var_dump'ing and returning a value -Status: Open +Status: Spam Type: Feature/Change Request -Package: Feature/Change Request +Package: *General Issues PHP Version: 5.2.9RC2 Block user comment: N Private report: N Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-02-19 19:49:41] Progman2002 at gmx dot de Description: ------------ During debugging and helping other users you want to print/debug/var_dump a value to check its value. Currently you write something like var_dump($sql); before you use the variable to check its content. But it may be better to just use a language construct which 1. output the parameter as like var_dump do 2. return the parameter as like without the language construct. As an example this language construct could be named "debugprint" and be used as followed. // original code mysql_query(a_function_which_generates_a_query()); // old-debugging style var_dump($sql = a_function_which_generates_a_query()); mysql_query($sql); // using of "debugprint" mysql_query(debugprint a_function_with_generates_a_query()); It must be a language construct and not a function as it should be easily prepended before any possible value without writing a closing parentheses for a function call. // bad mysql_query(debugprint(a_function_with_generates_a_query())); // good mysql_query(debugprint a_function_with_generates_a_query()); So you can simply remove this keyword/statement if not needed anymore (and dont need to check which parenthese you must remove aswell). Note: I'm not talking here about using a professional debugger as other people may help other people with their scripts they wrote. These people may don't use a professional debugger at all and only know "echo-debugging". So instead of saying "save the return value of the function in a variable and output it with var_dump for debugging" it could be just "write 'debugprint' before your function to check the return value" and the script itself is still running (as the language construct returns the value, too) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=47453&edit=1