Xdebug is an excellent addition to a PHP developers arsenal. However when debugging large arrays etc, the truncating can get in the way.
To stop Xdebug truncating arrays etc when you dump them using var_dump, just make these two additions to your php.ini file:
xdebug.var_display_max_data=9999999999 xdebug.var_display_max_children=9999999999
For a fuller explanation of Xdebug check out this article

thanks! this was very helpful!