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PHP_CodeSniffer is a set of two PHP scripts:

  1. the main phpcs script that tokenizes PHP, JavaScript and CSS files to detect violations of a defined coding standard; and
  2. a phpcbf script to automatically correct detected coding standard violations.

PHP_CodeSniffer is an essential development tool that ensures your code remains clean and consistent.

A coding standard in PHP_CodeSniffer is a collection of sniff files. Each sniff file checks one part of the coding standard only. Each sniff can yield multiple error codes, a different one for each aspect of the code which was checked and found non-compliant.

Multiple coding standards can be used within PHP_CodeSniffer so that the one installation can be used across multiple projects. The default coding standard used by PHP_CodeSniffer is the PEAR coding standard.

Example

To check a file against the default coding standard, simply specify the file's location. The default coding standard in PHP_CodeSniffer 3.x is PEAR; the default coding standard in PHP_CodeSniffer 3.x is PSR12.

$ phpcs path/to/code/myfile.php

FILE: path/to/code/myfile.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOUND 10 ERRORS AND 2 WARNINGS AFFECTING 5 LINES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  4 | WARNING | [ ] PHP version not specified
  4 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing @category tag in file comment
  4 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing @package tag in file comment
  4 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing @author tag in file comment
  4 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing @license tag in file comment
  4 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing @link tag in file comment
  8 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing doc comment for class Bar
  8 | ERROR   | [x] Opening brace of a class must be on the line after the
    |         |     definition
  9 | ERROR   | [ ] Missing doc comment for function baz()
 11 | WARNING | [ ] Line exceeds 85 characters; contains 136 characters
 12 | ERROR   | [x] Line indented incorrectly; expected at least 8 spaces,
    |         |     found 4
 12 | ERROR   | [x] TRUE, FALSE and NULL must be lowercase; expected "false"
    |         |     but found "FALSE"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHPCBF CAN FIX THE 3 MARKED SNIFF VIOLATIONS AUTOMATICALLY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time: 23ms; Memory: 6MB

Or, if you wish to check an entire directory, you can specify the directory location instead of a file.

$ phpcs /path/to/code

FILE: /path/to/code/myfile.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOUND 5 ERROR(S) AFFECTING 5 LINE(S)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  2 | ERROR | Missing file doc comment
 20 | ERROR | PHP keywords must be lowercase; expected "false" but found "FALSE"
 47 | ERROR | Line not indented correctly; expected 4 spaces but found 1
 51 | ERROR | Missing function doc comment
 88 | ERROR | Line not indented correctly; expected 9 spaces but found 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FILE: /path/to/code/yourfile.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOUND 1 ERROR(S) AND 1 WARNING(S) AFFECTING 1 LINE(S)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 21 | ERROR   | PHP keywords must be lowercase; expected "false" but found
    |         | "FALSE"
 21 | WARNING | Equals sign not aligned with surrounding assignments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Found a mistake ? Think this documentation can be improved ?

Contributions to this wiki are welcome! Submit a pull request to the Documentation repository to propose your changes.

For everyone

Introduction
Requirements
Usage
Advanced Usage
Reporting
Configuration Options
Fixing Errors Automatically
FAQ

For coding standard creators

About Standards for PHP_CodeSniffer
Annotated Ruleset
Customisable Sniff Properties
Version 4.0 Upgrade Guide

For sniff developers

Coding Standard Tutorial
Version 4.0 Upgrade Guide (Dev)
Version 3.0 Upgrade Guide
Version 1.3.0 Upgrade Guide

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