Question

I usually, test code with PHP code, special PHP variables with var_dump and print_r
But I always end up placing them everywhere and messing up the code.

Is it common to include them or place them in an organised way?

Answer 1

Why not wrap every var_dump or print_r in this way:

if($debug) {
    var_dump($foo);
}

Then you can set $debug = true at the top of every file – or even better, in a file that is included by every other file, so that you can globally turn debugging on or off. You can also programatically set the debug flag like this:

if($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] == "localhost") {
    $debug = true;
} else {
    $debug = false;
}