I am working on a PHP Laravel project with a team that requires spaces within brackets like this:
$t = $one[ 0 ];
I attempted to accomplish this by set the following requirement in the Code Style Preference:
The highlights show that spaces should be added within brackets as needed. However, after saving and restarting, I do not get this style applied, no matter how many time I press Ctrl+Alt+L.
Worse still, PhpStorm strips out the spaces that already exist within brackets, which causes a huge headache when I try to auto format existing code.
So this:
Is reformatted and becomes this:
I've set up other custom code style setting, and the other custom setting are getting applied.
Could someone offer some help with fixing this style problem?
That option works just fine. It is for accessing individual array elements (e.g. $t = $one[ 0 ];).
But on your screenshots, where it does not work... it's array initializer (in other words, $var = array('aaa', 'bbb');)... and for that you need to use appropriate option -- "Array initializer parentheses" (which is just a bit below of what you have tried above).
I looked around and found things that addressed related issues, but not what I'm looking for specifically.
I'm using Netbeans which has really grown on me, but when I go to use a function, the "intellisense" hints pop up correctly, but as soon as I go to type in the arguments, the code hint that shows the function signature and its parameters disappear.
This hurts my productivity because I don't have the signatures memorized, and I always end up having to reference it as I'm typing it up.
Is this normal for Netbeans or is there some way I can make it so the function hints stay until I close the parenthesis for the function signature?
Update: I just found Ctrl + P will show the parameter methods, is there some way to have that automatically show instead of constantly typing Ctrl + P?
Inside function parentheses, type Ctrl + P and the parameters hint will appear (NetBeans Menu Bar -> Source -> Show Method Parameters).
Apparently turning off auto-bracket closing will allow intellisense and code hints to appear correctly.
I have an old application witch pops up an error at a certain location. The error is about an wrong set variable. Only from the error it is not possible to find the location where the variable is set wrong. Now my idea is to use reflections to find the location.
Is it possible to use reflections to find the code position at which a variable gets a certain value?
The idea: I have the name and the value of the variable. Now if both are matching a certain event should be triggered and echo the actual parsed file and line number.
Every ideas that help are appreciated.
Thank you,
-lony
P.S.: Is it possible even if the application is not really object oriented and uses a lot of spaghetti code?
I would be you do a debug_backtrace at the point where the error occurs and try to exploit the stack trace to see where the variable is changed. The debug_backtrace would give you a list of file included after it should be fairly easy to filter a list of line with a global search (i.e. grep)
var_dump(debug_backtrace())
if (variable == value) {
echo "variable equals value, line #whatever"+"<br/>";
}
Just place these at various points in code and see which ones display. Manually enter line numbers.
I found a solution to one of my problems.
The function debug_print_backtrace helped me finally debugging my spaghetti code. I found it by reading this post.
-Cheers
I am a C++ programmer starting with PHP. I find that I lose most of the debugging time (and my selfesteem!) due to undefined variables. From what I know, the only way to deal with them is to watch the output at execution time.
Are other strategies to notice these faults earlier (something like with C++ that a single compile gives you all the clues you need)?
This is a common complaint with PHP. Here are some ideas:
Use a code analysis tool. Many IDEs such as NetBeans will help also.
Just run the code. PHP doesn't have an expensive compilation step like C++ does.
Use unit testing. Common side effects include: better code.
Set error_reporting(-1), or the equivalent in your ini file.
Get xdebug. It's not preventative, but stack traces help with squishing bugs.
isset(), === null (identity operator), and guard clauses are your friends.
Loose and dynamic typing are a feature of the language. Just because PHP isn't strict about typing doesn't mean you can't be. If it really bugs you and you have a choice, you could try Python instead—it's a bit stricter with typing.
Log your E_NOTICE messages to a text file. You can then process logs with automated scripts to indicate files and lines where these are raised.
No. In PHP, you can only know a variable doesn't exist when you try to access it.
Consider:
if ($data = file('my_file.txt')) {
if (count($data) >= 0)
$line = reset($data);
}
var_dump($line);
You have to restructure your code so that all the code paths leads to the variable defined, e.g.:
$line = "default value";
if ($data = file('my_file.txt')) {
if (count($data) >= 0)
$line = reset($data);
}
var_dump($line);
If there isn't any default value that makes sense, this is still better than isset because you'll warned if you have a typo in the variable name in the final if:
$line = null;
if ($data = file('my_file.txt')) {
if (count($data) >= 0)
$line = reset($data);
}
if ($line !== null) { /* ... */ }
Of course, you can use isset1 to check, at a given point, if a variable exists. However, if your code relies on that, it's probably poorly structured. My point is that, contrary to e.g. C/Java, you cannot, at compile time, determine if an access to a variable is valid. This is made worse by the nonexistence of block scope in PHP.
1 Strictly speaking, isset won't tell you whether a variable is set, it tell if it's set and is not null. Otherwise, you'll need get_defined_vars.
From what I know the only way to deal with them is to watch the output at execution time.
Not really: To prevent these notices from popping up, you just need to make sure you initialize variables before accessing them the first time. We (sadly IMO) don't have variable declaration in PHP, but initializing them in the beginning of your code block is just as well:
$my_var = value;
Using phpDocumentor syntax, you can also kind of declare them to be of a certain a type, at least in a way that many IDEs are able to do code lookup with:
/** #desc optional description of what the variable does
#var int */
$my_var = 0;
Also, you can (and sometimes need to) use isset() / empty() / array_key_exists() conditions before trying to access a variable.
I agree this sucks big time sometimes, but it's necessary. There should be no notices in finished production code - they eat up performance even if displaying them is turned off, plus they are very useful to find out typos one may have made when using a variable. (But you already know that.)
Just watch not to do operations that requires the variable value when using it the first time, like the concatenate operator, .=.
If you are a C++ programmer you must be used to declare all variables. Do something similar to this in PHP by zeroing variables or creating empty array if you want to use them.
Pay attention to user input, and be sure you have registered globals off and check inputs from $_GET and $_POST by isset().
You can also try to code classes against structural code, and have every variable created at the beginning of a class declaration with the correct privacy policy.
You can also separate the application logic from the view, by preparing all variables that have to be outputted first, and when it goes to display it, you will be know which variables you prepared.
During development stages use
error_reporting(E_ALL);
which will show every error that has caused, all NOTICE errors, etc.
Keep an eye on your error_log as well. That will show you errors.
Use an error reporting system, example:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-error-handler.php
class ErrorReporter
{
public function catch($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline)
{
if($errno == E_USER_NOTICE && !defined('DEBUG'))
{
// Catch all output buffer and clear states, redirect or include error page.
}
}
}
set_error_handler(array(new ErrorReporter,'catch'));
A few other tips is always use isset for variables that you may / may not have set because of a if statement let’s say.
Always use if(isset($_POST['key'])) or even better just use if(!empty($_POST['key'])) as this checks if the key exists and if the value is not empty.
Make sure you know your comparison operators as well. Languages like C# use == to check a Boolean state whereas in PHP to check data-types you have to use === and use == to check value states, and single = to assign a value!
Unless I'm missing something, then why is no one suggesting to structure your page properly? I've never really had an ongoing problem with undefined variable errors.
An idea on structuring your page
Define all your variables at the top, assign default values if necessary, and then use those variables from there. That's how I write web pages and I never run into undefined variable problems.
Don't get in the habit of defining variables only when you need them. This quickly creates spaghetti code and can be very difficult to manage.
No one likes spaghetti code
If you show us some of your code we might be able to offer suggestions on how you can better structure it to resolve these sorts of errors. You might be getting confused coming from a C background; the flow may work differently to web pages.
Good practice is to define all variable before use, i.e., set a default value:
$variable = default_value;
This will solve most problems. As suggested before, use Xdebug or built-in debugging tools in editors like NetBeans.
If you want to hide the error of an undefined variable, then use #. Example: #$var
I believe that various of the Code Coverage tools that are available for PHP will highlight this.
Personally, I try and set variables, even if it's with an empty string, array, Boolean, etc. Then I use a function such as isset() before using them. For example:
$page_found = false;
if ($page_found==false) {
// Do page not found stuff here
}
if (isset($_POST['field'])) {
$value = $_POST['field'];
$sql = "UPDATE table SET field = '$value'";
}
And so on. And before some smart-ass says it: I know that query's unsafe. It was just an example of using isset().
I really didn't find a direct answer already here. The actual solution I found to this problem is to use PHP Code Sniffer along with this awesome extension called PHP Code Sniffer Variable Analysis.
Also the regular PHP linter (php -l) is available inside PHP Code Sniffer, so I'm thinking about customizing my configuration for regular PHP linting, detecting unused/uninitialized variables and validating my own code style, all in one step.
My very minimal PHPCS configuration:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ruleset name="MyConfig">
<description>Minimal PHP Syntax check</description>
<rule ref="Generic.PHP.Syntax" />
<rule ref="VariableAnalysis" />
</ruleset>
I'm currently working on a very large project, and am under a lot of pressure to finish it soon, and I'm having a serious problem. The programmer who wrote this last defined variables in a very odd way - the config variables aren't all in the same file, they're spread out across the entire project of over 500 files and 100k+ lines of code, and I'm having a hell of a time figuring out where a certain variable is, so I can fix an issue.
Is there a way to track this variable down? I believe he's using SMARTY (Which I can not stand, due to issues like this), and the variable is a template variable. I'm fairly sure that the variable I'm looking for was initially defined as a PHP variable, then that variable is passed into SMARTY, so I'd like to track down the PHP one, however if that's impossible - how can I track down where he defined the variable for SMARTY?
P.S. I'm in Vista, and don't have ssh access to the server, so 'grep' is out of the question.
Brute force way, because sometimes smarty variables are not directly assigned, but their names can be stored in variables, concatenated from many strings or be result of some functions, that makes it impossible to find in files by simply searching / greping.
Firstly, write your own function to print readable backtrace, ie:
function print_backtrace()
{
$backtrace = debug_backtrace(FALSE);
foreach($backtrace as $trace)
echo "{$trace['file']} :: {$trace['line']}<br>";
}
Open main smarty file (Smarty.class.php by default) and around line 580 there is function called assign. Modify it to watch for desired variable name:
function assign($tpl_var, $value = null)
{
if($tpl_var == 'FOOBAR') /* Searching for FOOBAR */
{
print_backtrace();
exit;
}
The same modification may be required for second function - assign_by_ref. Now after running script you should have output like that:
D:\www\test_proj\libs\smarty\Smarty.class.php :: 584
D:\www\test_proj\classes.php :: 11
D:\www\test_proj\classes.php :: 6
D:\www\test_proj\functions.php :: 7
D:\www\test_proj\index.php :: 100
Second line points to the place where variable was first assigned.
This sort of thing is the #1 reason I install Cygwin on all my windows machines.
grep myvariablename `find project_dir -name "*.php"`
I can't imagine programming without a working grep.
There is an interesting further option, ugly like hell but helpful if you are really lost.
If you would like to know where THE_NAME was defined, write lines like these on a place you are sure is run first:
error_reporting(E_ALL);
define('THE_NAME', 'Chuck Norris');
If later PHP will run the definition you are looking for, it will write a notice like this:
Notice: Constant THE_NAME already defined
in /home/there/can-rip-a-page-out-of-facebook.com/SomeConfiguration.php on line 89
Then you know that the definition you are looking for is in the file SomeConfiguration.php on line 89.
To have this working, you must consider
if there are HTTP forwards in the framework on the way to the code you set in
if there are further commands setting the PHP error reporting mode
So sometimes it helps to add some exit('here') in order not to blur the output. Maybe you have to narrow down a bit or you have to set error_reporting earlier, but you'll find it.
It's not a perfect solution, but I find agent ransack useful for searching large directories and files. Might help you narrow things down. The search results will allow you to read the exact line it finds a match on in the result pane.
If you use the netbeans editor just "right click" -> "go to Definition"
Or ctrl + click on the variable.
If the editor can't figure it out, you could fallback to the "Find in files" option.
Just use one of the available PHP IDEs (or a simple text editor like Notepad++ if you're really desperate) and search for the name of the variable in all source files (most PHP IDEs also support finding where functions/vars were defined and allow you to jump to the relevant piece of code). Though it seems weird that you don't know what piece of code calls the template (whether it's Smarty or anything else doesn't really matter). You should be able to drill down in the code starting from the URI (using any IDE which supports debugging), because that way you're bound to see where said variable is defined.