PHP Tools for Visual Studio - Documentation

Problems and Code Validation

The core of the PHP extension relies on its static code analysis; built-in type inferring and validation resolve wide range of code diagnostics - making sure your code is correct, providing instantaneous problem reports. The analysis understands PHPStan, Psalm, phpstorm meta files, and other frequently used annotations.

The code analysis can be configured to analyze the whole workspace and subsequent changes, with a little CPU overhead. See diagnostics for the most common issues detected by the extension.

Problems Window

Analysis can be configured for specific files, and specific diagnostic codes.

.editorconfig

Most flexible way of configuring diagnostics; edit or create .editorconfig file within the project directory. The file can be nested in a sub-directory as well. For more information, see docs.microsoft.com.

To configure a diagnostic, add section matching the file path and file name applying to, by default it would be [*.php].

[*.php]
php_diagnostic_php6401 = false
php_diagnostic = true

Add rules, according to the problem error code.

Rule format

Rules are in format php_diagnostic_php[error_code] = [value] (lower cased). Possible values are:

  • true, on: the diagnostic will be listed with its default severity.
  • false, silent, off, none: the diagnostic won't be listed.
  • fatalerror: the diagnostic will be listed as fatal error.
  • error: the diagnostic will be listed as error.
  • warning: the diagnostic will be listed as a warning.
  • message, suggestion: the diagnostic will be listed as a message.
[*.php]
php_diagnostic_php6401 = message
php_diagnostic_php6402 = false

For all the diagnostics with any error code, use rule in format php_diagnostic = [value].

[*Test.php]
php_diagnostic = error

Note, rule with the error code (php_diagnostic_php[error_code]) has a precedence over the rule without the error code (php_diagnostic).

settings.json

Problems can be disabled in VSCode's settings.json file.

php.problems.scope

By default, static analysis reports all problems found in any document that is opened ("opened" setting value). It can be configured to analyze nothing ("none"), user files ("user"), opened files ("opened"), or even the entire workspace almost instantaneously ("all"). Details for the possible settings are:

Values:

  • "php.problems.scope": "none": No problems analysis is performed. Note, this also disables unused use check, unreachable code checks, and others.
  • "php.problems.scope": "opened": Only PHP documents opened in the editor are checked for problems. Note, parse errors are still reported in all files across the entire workspace.
  • "php.problems.scope": "user": (default) Problems are checked in the workspace files excluding /vendor/** and other framework-specific directories (such as /wp-includes/ in WordPress, etc.).
  • "php.problems.scope": "all": Enables problems analysis across the entire workspace.

Example:

"php.problems.scope" : "all"

Note, parse errors and some fatal errors will be reported in all files across the entire workspace. Use .editorconfig to suppress them.

php.problems.exclude

The setting allows to exclude problems found in specified files or entire directories from being shown in Problems panel. There are two possible values:

"php.problems.exclude" : {
    'path' : true,
    'path' : [1111, 2222],
}
  • Boolean value true marks the files or directories matching given glob pattern path to be excluded in problems panel.
  • Array value [] may contain only specific problem codes to be excluded within files matching the glob pattern path.

Any rules matching the same folder are merged, as depicted on the sample below. The sample disables all warnings in 'vendor' directory and disables additionaly one warning PHP0406 in the entire project.

"php.problems.exclude" : {
    "/" : [406],
    "vendor/" : true,
}

@suppress PHPDoc tag

Problems can be suppressed for a specified function or a class only. Following PHPDoc tags allows to suppress warnings in the associated function block or class block: @suppresswarnings, @suppress, or @suppresswarning.

<?php

/**
 * @suppress PHP6401
 */
function foo() {
    // something with error 6401, won't be reported
}

Suppressed error codes can be optionally separated by a comma or a space.

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