What is the best way to inject a logger?

I'm working on several projects right now that I'd like to be able to generate logs from.

The problem is that logging isn't required for the code to work, so how do I configure it?

I see three possibilities:

Required in Constructor #

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
class MyClass {
  private $logger;
  public function __construct(LoggerInterface $logger) {
  }
}

Pros

  • Cleanest implementation

Cons

  • Requires user to pass in a logger even if they don't want to log anything

Optional in Constructor #

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
use Psr\Log\NullLogger;
class MyClass {
  private $logger;
  public function __construct(LoggerInterface $logger = null) {
    if (is_null($logger)) {
    }
    $this->logger = $logger;
  }
}

Pros

  • No longer requires the user to pass in a logger

Cons

  • Clutters up the constructor
  • I consider using null a code smell

Optional setLogger Method #

use Psr\Log\LoggerInterface;
use Psr\Log\NullLogger;
class MyClass {
  private $logger;
  public function __construct() {
  }
  public function setLogger(LoggerInterface $logger) {
  }
}

Pros

  • Clean constructor
  • No nulls

Cons

  • Instantiating with a logger requires two statements

Summary #

I'm leaning toward the third method for my packages even though it doesn't feel like an ideal solution. It just feels better than the other two.

How are you handling injecting an optional logger? Let me know in the comments.