Printing debug output to console in Codeception

Very thick question, but is there any way to print your own debug messages to the console in Codeception? I mean messages that have nothing to do with assertions, purely for debugging the tests themselves (e.g. like you would var_dump() a variable in any regular PHP website)

I have already tried var_dump(), echo and print but to no avail. Using WebDebug‘s makeAResponseDump() doesn’t produce the required results neither, I just want to be able to see my variable’s content without having to run a debugger like xdebug.

Answer

I seem to have found a way around the issue by using a helper class:

class WebHelper extends CodeceptionModule
{
    public function seeMyVar($var){
        $this->debug($var);
    }
}

and calling the class as such:

$foo = array('one','two');
$I->seeMyVar($foo);

then I get the debug output I’m looking for

I see my var "lambda function"
  Array
  (
      [0] => one
      [1] => two
  )

I will accept this as a temporary solution however I would like to keep my assertions clean and not clutter them with var_dumps upgraded to test functions, so if anyone has a conceptually correct solution, please submit