PHPDoc type hinting for array of objects?

 

So, in PHPDoc one can specify @var above the member variable declaration to hint at its type. Then an IDE, for ex. PHPEd, will know what type of object it's working with and will be able to provide a code insight for that variable.

<?php
  class Test
  {
    /** @var SomeObj */
    private $someObjInstance;
  }
?>

This works great until I need to do the same to an array of objects to be able to get a proper hint when I iterate through those objects later on.

So, is there a way to declare a PHPDoc tag to specify that the member variable is an array of SomeObjs? @var array is not enough, and @var array(SomeObj) doesn't seem to be valid, for example.

 

dd a comment

13 Answers

353

Use:

/* @var $objs Test[] */
foreach ($objs as $obj) {
    // Typehinting will occur after typing $obj->
}

when typehinting inline variables, and

class A {
    /** @var Test[] */
    private $items;
}

for class properties.

Previous answer from '09 when PHPDoc (and IDEs like Zend Studio and Netbeans) didn't have that option:

The best you can do is say,

foreach ($Objs as $Obj)
{
    /* @var $Obj Test */
    // You should be able to get hinting after the preceding line if you type $Obj->
}

I do that a lot in Zend Studio. Don't know about other editors, but it ought to work.

 

895

In the PhpStorm IDE from JetBrains, you can use /** @var SomeObj[] */, e.g.:

/**
 * @return SomeObj[]
 */
function getSomeObjects() {...}

The phpdoc documentation recommends this method:

specified containing a single type, the Type definition informs the reader of the type of each array element. Only one Type is then expected as element for a given array.

Example: @return int[]

 

25

PSR-5: PHPDoc proposes a form of Generics-style notation.

Syntax

Type[]
Type<Type>
Type<Type[, Type]...>
Type<Type[|Type]...>

Values in a Collection MAY even be another array and even another Collection.

Type<Type<Type>>
Type<Type<Type[, Type]...>>
Type<Type<Type[|Type]...>>

Examples

<?php

$x = [new Name()];
/* @var $x Name[] */

$y = new Collection([new Name()]);
/* @var $y Collection<Name> */

$a = new Collection(); 
$a[] = new Model_User(); 
$a->resetChanges(); 
$a[0]->name = "George"; 
$a->echoChanges();
/* @var $a Collection<Model_User> */

Note: If you are expecting an IDE to do code assist then it's another question about if the IDE supports PHPDoc Generic-style collections notation.