Debug_echo()

[PrivatePile]

I've just started learning PHP. 😃

I'm tryin to write a debug_echo function that i can use throughout my code to echo variables to the output when i test it. This needs to be something i can turn off and on at will. I was thinking about the equivelant of a C++ #define which i could set and unset.

What is the php implentation of this? I've not been able to find any details on pre-process directives or conditional compiling (i know that php isn't compiled, but figured there would be some alternative to this method)

Can anyone help me here?

Cheers
Pile
😕

[PrivatePile]

Don't rush to answer, as i have just descovered the quite simple define() function which is working perfectly along with the defined() function. For all interested, the code i used was.

/* debug_echo.php */

<?php 

  function debug_echo($var)
  {
	 	if (defined(DEBUG_MODE))
		{
       echo "<pre>$var</pre>";
		}
  }

/* Example of usage:

	 define('DEBUG_MODE, true);
	 include 'debug_echo.php';

	 $var = 'This is working';
	 debug_echo($var);

    When DEBUG_MODE is defined this will output:

                "This is working"

    So to toggle debug mode, just comment out the define line
*/

?>

[PrivatePile]

Looks like i made one small error in the above code, the defined(DEBUG_MODE) needs quotes. I.E.

if defined("DEBUG_MODE")
{
...
}