Is Laravels' DD helper function working properly? - laravel

Question

I like to use the dd function to debug. This time when I use it to display a list of appointments, I can't see (no clickable arrow) the data in the attributes and original. I get the brackets [ …19] displayed instead, not sure why.
Collection {#3061 ▼
#items: array:548 [▼
0 => Appointment {#821 ▼
#table: "appointments"
#fillable: array:16 [ …16]
#connection: null
#primaryKey: "id"
#perPage: 15
+incrementing: true
+timestamps: true
#attributes: array:19 [ …19]
#original: array:19 [ …19]
#relations: array:2 [ …2]
#hidden: []
#visible: []
#appends: []
#guarded: array:1 [ …1]
#dates: []
#dateFormat: null
#casts: []
#touches: []
#observables: []
#with: []
#morphClass: null
+exists: true
+wasRecentlyCreated: false
}
1 => Appointment {#822 ▶}
2 => Appointment {#823 ▶}
3 => Appointment {#824 ▶}
4 => Appointment {#825 ▶}
5 => Appointment {#826 ▶}
6 => Appointment {#827 ▶}
7 => Appointment {#828 ▶}
And later in the list, I can't even see inside an appointment (no arrows):
81 => Appointment {#902 ▶}
82 => Appointment {#903 ▶}
83 => Appointment {#904 ▶}
84 => Appointment {#905 ▶}
85 => Appointment {#906 …23}
86 => Appointment {#907 …23}
87 => Appointment {#908 …23}
88 => Appointment {#909 …23}
89 => Appointment {#910 …23}
90 => Appointment {#911 …23}
But when I use var_dump, my data looks fine :
array(548) {
[0]=>
array(21) {
["id"]=>
int(149)
["appointmenttype_id"]=>
NULL
["appointmentlocationtype_id"]=>
NULL
["appointment_start"]=>
object(Carbon\Carbon)#812 (3) {
["date"]=>
string(26) "2015-12-21 07:00:00.000000"
["timezone_type"]=>
int(3)
["timezone"]=>
string(16) "America/New_York"
}
["appointment_end"]=>
object(Carbon\Carbon)#811 (3) {
["date"]=>
string(26) "2015-12-21 09:00:00.000000"
["timezone_type"]=>
int(3)
["timezone"]=>
string(16) "America/New_York"
}
Anyone else experienced that situation?

Answer 1

This is a not-so-known caveat of returning too large a list of results. Generally, dd() is meant to be a quick overview of the data you are returning, and handles "drill down" well on smaller groups of data. Once you reach a certain number (I forget the exact one, 500 maybe?), that functionality no longer works.
If you absolutely need to see this data before using it in your code somewhere, use a limit() clause before you get() the results, or use dd($example[0]) to see a single results' details. Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Not a bug in dd() just how the underlying Sympony VarDumper is configured.
I believe the line in question is this one which has sets $maxDepth to 20 but I haven't checked this.
Looking at the Laravel Dumper logic there doesn't seem to be anyway to override this from within Laravel.

Answer 3

I've found a way to work around this, although not recommended, if you really want the entire object dumped, add the following code snippet to /bootstrap/autoload.php
if (! function_exists('dd')) {
/**
* Dump the passed variables and end the script.
*
* #param mixed
* #return void
*/
function dd()
{
array_map(function ($x) {
$dumper = 'cli' === PHP_SAPI ? new \Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Dumper\CliDumper() : new \Illuminate\Support\Debug\HtmlDumper();
$cloner = new \Symfony\Component\VarDumper\Cloner\VarCloner();
$cloner->setMaxItems(-1);
$cloner->setMaxString(-1);
$dumper->dump($cloner->cloneVar($x));
}, func_get_args());
die(1);
}
}
This must be added above the line:
require DIR.'/../vendor/autoload.php';
It overrides the laravel dd function and sets 'setMaxItems' and 'setMaxString' on the Symfony VarCloner object before dumping.