Using __debugInfo()

The __debugInfo() magic method gets triggered when the var_dump() function is called. By default, the var_dump() function shows all public, protected, and private properties of an object. However, if an object class implements the __debugInfo() magic method, we get to control the output of the var_dump() function. The method does not accept any parameters, and returns an array of key-values to be shown, as per the following synopsis:

array __debugInfo(void)

The following example demonstrates the __debugInfo() method implementation:

<?php

class User
{
  public $name = 'John';
  public $age = 34;
  private $salary = 4200.00;
  private $bonus = 680.00;
  protected $identifier = 'ABC';
  protected $logins = 67;

  public function __debugInfo()
  {
    return [
      'name' => $this->name,
      'income' => $this->salary + $this->bonus
    ];
  }
}

$user = new User();

var_dump($user);

This results in the following output:

object(User)#1 (2) {
  ["name"]=&gt...