Xdebug is a PHP extension that provides a range of tools to assist developers during the debugging and development process. While Xdebug is not directly aimed at structural quality assurance (like static analysis tools such as PHPStan or Psalm), it provides several features that can indirectly aid in ensuring the structural quality of a PHP application.

How Xdebug help us

Step Debugging

Xdebug allows developers to step through their PHP code, inspect variables, and evaluate expressions at runtime. This enables a deeper understanding of the code flow, helping to identify structural problems, logic issues, or unexpected behaviors.

Function Trace

With Xdebug, developers can generate function traces, which give insights into the sequence of function/method calls. By examining these traces, one can identify potential bottlenecks, redundant calls, or other structural inefficiencies.