symfony/http-kernel · error · InvalidArgumentException

Invalid dump format: " ".

Error message

Invalid dump format: "%s".

What it means

DumpDataCollector::getDumps() only supports two output formats: 'html' (via HtmlDumper) and a compact array format (via DataDumperInterface fallback). Any other $format string triggers InvalidArgumentException. This is a programming error in the caller, not a runtime condition — the format is fixed by the class contract.

Solutions

1. Pass 'html' or omit the argument (default) when calling getDumps().
2. Check the collector's accepted formats in DumpDataCollector.php and normalize input before calling (e.g. in_array check).
3. If you need plain text, use the DataDumperInterface path (default format) instead of inventing a format string.

Example fix

// before
$dumps = $collector->getDumps('text');
// after
$format = in_array($format, ['html', 'cli'], true) ? $format : 'html';
$dumps = $collector->getDumps($format);

if (!in_array($format, ['html', 'cli'], true)) {
    throw new \InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('Format "%s" not supported; use html or cli.', $format));
}

/** @phpstan-assert 'html'|'cli' $format */
function isValidDumpFormat(mixed $format): bool
{
    return \is_string($format) && in_array($format, ['html', 'cli'], true);
}

try {
    $dumps = $collector->getDumps($format);
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    $dumps = $collector->getDumps(); // fall back to default format
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling $collector->getDumps($format, ...) with a format other than 'html' or the accepted compact/default (e.g. 'text', 'cli', 'json'); passing a user-supplied format string straight through to the collector.

Common situations: Custom debug tooling built on the Web Profiler's DumpDataCollector; script/CLI utilities dumping collected var_dumps output; copy-pasting a format name from another dumper API.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• Message built by getControllerError(): e.g. Function
• Request payload contains invalid "form" data.
• Unsupported format: " ".
• Request payload contains invalid
• Request payload contains invalid

AI-assisted analysis of symfony/http-kernel@aa3a39d728 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fc60b471186fd575. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at DataCollector/DumpDataCollector.php:221

        self::__construct($this->stopwatch ?? null, \is_string($fileLinkFormat) || $fileLinkFormat instanceof FileLinkFormatter ? $fileLinkFormat : null, \is_string($charset) ? $charset : null);
    }

    public function getDumpsCount(): int
    {
        return $this->dataCount;
    }

    public function getDumps(string $format, int $maxDepthLimit = -1, int $maxItemsPerDepth = -1): array
    {
        $data = fopen('php://memory', 'r+');

        if ('html' === $format) {
            $dumper = new HtmlDumper($data, $this->charset);
            $dumper->setDisplayOptions(['fileLinkFormat' => $this->fileLinkFormat]);
            $this->applyNonceTo($dumper);
        } else {
            throw new \InvalidArgumentException(\sprintf('Invalid dump format: "%s".', $format));
        }
        $dumps = [];

        if (!$this->dataCount) {
            return $this->data = [];
        }

        foreach ($this->data as $dump) {
            $dumper->dump($dump['data']->withMaxDepth($maxDepthLimit)->withMaxItemsPerDepth($maxItemsPerDepth));
            $dump['data'] = stream_get_contents($data, -1, 0);
            ftruncate($data, 0);
            rewind($data);
            $dumps[] = $dump;
        }

        return $dumps;
    }

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