How to debug in php?

Question

PHP

In js there is a handy console.log() thing, but in php how to check what value was assigned to a variable?

Answer 1

xdebug is a PHP module for debugging. De facto standard.
It is used together with the IDE, the most popular IDE is PhpStorm (more popular than all the others combined 10 times).

Answer 2

var_dump($var);

Answer 3

For absolutely trivial cases - var_dump($var). For something more complex - XDebug, PHPDebug, etc., which Google advises.