PHPMD - PHP Mess Detector

Design Rules

The Design Ruleset contains a collection of rules that find software design related problems.

ExitExpression

Since: PHPMD 0.2

An exit-expression within regular code is untestable and therefore it should be avoided. Consider to move the exit-expression into some kind of startup script where an error/exception code is returned to the calling environment.

Example: :

class Foo {
    public function bar($param)  {
        if ($param === 42) {
            exit(23);
        }
    }
}

EvalExpression

Since: PHPMD 0.2

An eval-expression is untestable, a security risk and bad practice. Therefore it should be avoided. Consider to replace the eval-expression with regular code.

Example: :

class Foo {
    public function bar($param)  {
        if ($param === 42) {
            eval('$param = 23;');
        }
    }
}

GotoStatement

Since: PHPMD 1.1.0

Goto makes code harder to read and it is nearly impossible to understand the control flow of an application that uses this language construct. Therefore it should be avoided. Consider to replace Goto with regular control structures and separate methods/function, which are easier to read.

Example: :

class Foo {
    public function bar($param)  {
        A:
        if ($param === 42) {
            goto X;
        }
        Y:
        if (time() % 42 === 23) {
            goto Z;
        }
        X:
        if (time() % 23 === 42) {
            goto Y;
        }
        Z:
        return 42;
    }
}

NumberOfChildren

Since: PHPMD 0.2

A class with an excessive number of children is an indicator for an unbalanced class hierarchy. You should consider to refactor this class hierarchy.

This rule has the following properties:

NameDefault ValueDescription
minimum15Maximum number of acceptable child classes.

DepthOfInheritance

Since: PHPMD 0.2

A class with many parents is an indicator for an unbalanced and wrong class hierarchy. You should consider to refactor this class hierarchy.

This rule has the following properties:

NameDefault ValueDescription
minimum6Maximum number of acceptable parent classes.

CouplingBetweenObjects

Since: PHPMD 1.1.0

A class with too many dependencies has negative impacts on several quality aspects of a class. This includes quality criteria like stability, maintainability and understandability

Example: :

class Foo {
    /**
     * @var \foo\bar\X
     */
    private $x = null;

    /**
     * @var \foo\bar\Y
     */
    private $y = null;

    /**
     * @var \foo\bar\Z
     */
    private $z = null;

    public function setFoo(\Foo $foo) {}
    public function setBar(\Bar $bar) {}
    public function setBaz(\Baz $baz) {}

    /**
     * @return \SplObjectStorage
     * @throws \OutOfRangeException
     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException
     * @throws \ErrorException
     */
    public function process(\Iterator $it) {}

    // ...
}

This rule has the following properties:

NameDefault ValueDescription
maximum13Maximum number of acceptable dependencies.

DevelopmentCodeFragment

Since: PHPMD 2.3.0

Functions like var_dump(), print_r() etc. are normally only used during development and therefore such calls in production code are a good indicator that they were just forgotten.

Example: :

class SuspectCode {

    public function doSomething(array $items)
    {
        foreach ($items as $i => $item) {
            // …

            if ('qafoo' == $item) var_dump($i);

            // …
        }
    }
}

This rule has the following properties:

NameDefault ValueDescription
unwanted-functionsvar_dump,print_r,debug_zval_dump,debug_print_backtraceComma separated list of suspect function images.
ignore-namespacesfalseIgnore namespaces when looking for dev. fragments

EmptyCatchBlock

Since: PHPMD 2.7.0

Usually empty try-catch is a bad idea because you are silently swallowing an error condition and then continuing execution. Occasionally this may be the right thing to do, but often it's a sign that a developer saw an exception, didn't know what to do about it, and so used an empty catch to silence the problem.

Example: :

class Foo {

    public function bar()
    {
        try {
            // ...
        } catch (Exception $e) {} // empty catch block
    }
}

CountInLoopExpression

Since: PHPMD 2.7.0

Using count/sizeof in loops expressions is considered bad practice and is a potential source of many bugs, especially when the loop manipulates an array, as count happens on each iteration.

Example: :

class Foo {

  public function bar()
  {
    $arr = array();

    for ($i = 0; count($arr); $i++) {
      // ...
    }
  }
}

Remark

This document is based on a ruleset xml-file, that was taken from the original source of the PMD project. This means that most parts of the content on this page are the intellectual work of the PMD community and its contributors and not of the PHPMD project.

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