CodeIgniter Kint and dd()

Note: this article is about the PHP function for dumping data in a web application, NOT the linux shell command for reading or writing raw data from a storage device.

During my 20+ years of building web applications, CodeIgniter has worked quite well for my purposes (low volume, small databases, custom content management). It's a lightweight PHP framework which allows me to work at just the right level(s) of abstraction. Since version 4, Codeigniter has stepped into the 21st century and works with the composer package manager. Prior to version 4, I struggled to find adequate scaffolding for basic functionality like user authentication. Now there appears to be a plethora of support for common tools such as unit testing, kint and so on.

The first major change for me was ditching my old authentication module (the solid but limited ion_auth) and replacing it with Shield. I've also installed the Kint module, PHPUnit, and more. The problem with this modular approach is that it's sometimes easy to forget where things are, which lead me to the following code snipped I found on stackoverflow*:

<?php $reflFunc = new ReflectionFunction('function_name');
print $reflFunc->getFileName() . ':' . $reflFunc->getStartLine();

Replace the string 'function_name' with any function that you're using and it should show you the php source file and line number corresponding to the function definition. So for example, I didn't remember that dd() (dump and die) was part of Kint, so I replaced 'function_name' with 'dd' and the source file and line number were displayed. (Don't forget about d() too!)

*Not sure why, but there was only one response to the posted question with a rank of zero even after nine years.