php: determine where function was called from

php function-calls
pol_b picture pol_b · Jun 2, 2010 · Viewed 61.5k times · Source

is there a way to find out, where a function in PHP was called from? example:

function epic()
{
  fail();
}

function fail()
{
  //at this point, how do i know, that epic() has called this function?
}

Answer

romac picture romac · Jun 2, 2010

You can use debug_backtrace().

Example:

<?php

function epic( $a, $b )
{
    fail( $a . ' ' . $b );
}

function fail( $string )
{
    $backtrace = debug_backtrace();

    print_r( $backtrace );
}

epic( 'Hello', 'World' );

Output:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [file] => /Users/romac/Desktop/test.php
            [line] => 5
            [function] => fail
            [args] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Hello World
                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [file] => /Users/romac/Desktop/test.php
            [line] => 15
            [function] => epic
            [args] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Hello
                    [1] => World
                )

        )

)

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