Introduction

PHP_CodeSniffer is a set of two PHP scripts; the main phpcs script that tokenizes PHP, JavaScript and CSS files to detect violations of a defined coding standard, and a second phpcbf script to automatically correct 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. 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 PEAR coding standard, simply specify the file's location.

bash

$ phpcs /path/to/code/myfile.php

FILE: /path/to/code/myfile.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOUND 5 ERROR(S) AFFECTING 2 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

bash

$ 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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction #

Example #

Introduction

Example