How to get xdebug var_dump to show full object/array

Question

I am using xdebug (php_xdebug-2.1.2-5.3-vc9.dll) on WAMP. When I use var_dump on a large object or variable it does not show the full variable.

array
'node' => 
  array
    'my_form' => 
      array
        'form' => 
          array
            ...

Without xdebug it shows as should be expected. I looked at the documentation but did not see a solution. Does anyone know how I can fix this so xdebug var_dump shows the full object?

Answer 1

These are configurable variables in php.ini:

; with sane limits
xdebug.var_display_max_depth = 10
xdebug.var_display_max_children = 256
xdebug.var_display_max_data = 1024 


; with no limits
; (maximum nesting is 1023)
xdebug.var_display_max_depth = -1 
xdebug.var_display_max_children = -1
xdebug.var_display_max_data = -1 

Of course, these may also be set at runtime via ini_set(), useful if you don't want to modify php.ini and restart your web server but need to quickly inspect something more deeply.

ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_depth', '10');
ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_children', '256');
ini_set('xdebug.var_display_max_data', '1024');

Xdebug settings are explained in the official documentation.