# Log message structure

Within monolog log messages are passed around as [Monolog\LogRecord](../src/Monolog/LogRecord.php) objects,
for example to processors or handlers.

The table below describes the properties available.

property   | type                      | description
-----------|---------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
message    | string                    | The log message. When the `PsrLogMessageProcessor` is used this string may contain placeholders that will be replaced by variables from the context, e.g., "User {username} logged in" with `['username' => 'John']` as context will be written as "User John logged in".
level      | Monolog\Level case        | Severity of the log message. See log levels described in [01-usage.md](01-usage.md#log-levels).
context    | array                     | Arbitrary data passed with the construction of the message. For example the username of the current user or their IP address.
channel    | string                    | The channel this message was logged to. This is the name that was passed when the logger was created with `new Logger('channel')`.
datetime   | Monolog\JsonSerializableDateTimeImmutable | Date and time when the message was logged. Class extends `\DateTimeImmutable`.
extra      | array                     | A placeholder array where processors can put additional data. Always available, but empty if there are no processors registered.

At first glance `context` and `extra` look very similar, and they are in the sense that they both carry arbitrary data that is related to the log message somehow.
The main difference is that `context` can be supplied in user land (it is the 3rd parameter to `Psr\Log\LoggerInterface` methods) whereas `extra` is internal only
and can be filled by processors. The reason processors write to `extra` and not to `context` is to prevent overriding any user-provided data in `context`.

All properties except `extra` are read-only.

> Note: For BC reasons with Monolog 1 and 2 which used arrays, `LogRecord` implements `ArrayAccess` so you can access the above properties
> using `$record['message']` for example, with the notable exception of `level->getName()` which must be referred to as `level_name` for BC.