For Drupal module developers, hooks get all the glory, and for good reason. Hooks make our lives much easier when it comes to figuring out how to implement a client's complex business requirement.

But the unsung heroes in Drupal's API are its rich suite of utility functions. With each iteration of Drupal, developer feedback and community effort have added to that list functions that increase our efficiency and help make Drupal a better CMS framework.

I have been a Drupal developer since 2005 and I can remember several instances where I've said to myself - elbow deep in code - "Man, I wish Drupal just had a function that did this for me." Oftentimes, developers in the field create utility modules that contain reusable helper functions that address those needs. Sometimes we're lucky and those developers contribute back and we all benefit.

I remember how giddy I was when I saw the introduction of drupal_alter() and drupal_write_record() in D6. Or how I can't imagine life without module_load_include() now. All good things indeed that make the coder in me warm and fuzzy.

In this article, I'm going to show off a few new utility functions shipping with D7 that have stoked my interest. The first function is one that I'm sure nearly every module developer has implemented in some fashion themselves at one time or another: debug().