How do I get the entity that represents the current user in Symfony2?

In symfony >= 3.2, documentation states that:

An alternative way to get the current user in a controller is to type-hint the controller argument with UserInterface (and default it to null if being logged-in is optional):

use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\UserInterface\UserInterface;

public function indexAction(UserInterface $user = null)
{
    // $user is null when not logged-in or anon.
}

This is only recommended for experienced developers who don't extend from the Symfony base controller and don't use the ControllerTrait either. Otherwise, it's recommended to keep using the getUser() shortcut.

Blog post about it

The thread is a bit old but i think this could probably save someone's time ...

I ran into the same problem as the original question, that the type is showed as Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\User

It eventually turned out that i was logged in using an in memory user

my security.yml looks something like this

security:
    providers:
        chain_provider:
            chain:
                providers: [in_memory, fos_userbundle]
        fos_userbundle:
            id: fos_user.user_manager
        in_memory:
            memory:
                users:
                    user:  { password: userpass, roles: [ 'ROLE_USER' ] }
                    admin: { password: adminpass, roles: [ 'ROLE_ADMIN', 'ROLE_SONATA_ADMIN' ] }

the in_memory user type is always Symfony\Component\Security\Core\User\User if you want to use your own entity, log in using that provider's user.

Thanks, hj

Best practice

According to the documentation since Symfony 2.1 simply use this shortcut :

$user = $this->getUser();

The above is still working on Symfony 3.2 and is a shortcut for this :

$user = $this->get('security.token_storage')->getToken()->getUser();

The security.token_storage service was introduced in Symfony 2.6. Prior to Symfony 2.6, you had to use the getToken() method of the security.context service.

Example : And if you want directly the username :

$username = $this->getUser()->getUsername();

If wrong user class type

The user will be an object and the class of that object will depend on your user provider.

Symfony 4+, 2019+ Approach

In symfony 4 (probably 3.3 also, but only real-tested in 4) you can inject the Security service via auto-wiring in the controller like this:

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Security;

class SomeClass
{
    /**
     * @var Security
     */
    private $security;

    public function __construct(Security $security)
    {
       $this->security = $security;
    }

    public function privatePage() : Response
    {
        $user = $this->security->getUser(); // null or UserInterface, if logged in
        // ... do whatever you want with $user
    }
}

---

Symfony 2- Approach

As @ktolis says, you first have to configure your /app/config/security.yml.

Then with

$user = $this->get('security.token_storage')->getToken()->getUser();
$user->getUsername();

should be enougth!

$user is your User Object! You don't need to query it again.

Find out the way to set up your providers in security.yml from Sf2 Documentation and try again.

Best luck!