PHP Tools for Visual Studio - Documentation

March 2023 (version 1.72)

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Welcome to the March 2023 release of PHP Tools for Visual Studio!

Inlay Hints

Sometimes it is not clear what function arguments are used for. We are adding so-called inlay hints that annotate function parameters, inferred function return type, by-ref semantics to arguments, and expressions type.

inlay hints in PHP

Enable or disable Inlay Hints in Tools/Options, under Text Editor/PHP/Inlay Hints,

Short Open Tags Option

Now you can force the PHP Editor to treat short open tags <? differently. Go to Tools/Options, into Text Editor/PHP/Advanced. You'll find an option called Short Open Tags. You can enable or disable treating short open tags, or leave it to "Auto" which is the legacy behavior.

Previously the editor was parsing code next to <? according to various settings and the current PHP version.

Code Actions

Several quick refactorings through code actions have been added.

inlay hints in PHP

Assignments can be simplified with ??=, +=, *=, etc.

inlay hints in PHP

Transforming expressions to the new nullable object operator ?->.

inlay hints in PHP

Assignment using if conditions can be simplified.

inlay hints in PHP

And hard-to-read switch blocks can be simplified with the new match expression.

Doc Comments

PHP Documentary Comments have been improved as well. In addition to more code diagnostics, the editor understands the wide range of Psalm and PHPStan type annotations.

PHPDoc property validation

Type names specified in Doc Comments can specify templates and generic types, callable specifications, structured arrays, literals, and more.

Additionally, the triple dot syntax ... is now allowed within the @param tag, and the @param-out tag is recognized.

New Diagnostics

  • Checks for use of readonly properties.
  • Assignment to non-existing properties is checked.
  • Check for use of an unknown attribute class.
  • Check that class used within the throw expression is throwable.
  • Fixes many false-positive warnings!

Other Editor & IntelliSense Improvements

  • Facades from traits are recognized.
  • More precise type inference for some built-in functions.
  • More precise analysis of match arms.
  • Completion of properties after ?->.
  • Updated integrated PHP manual.
  • Go To Def prefers declaration in the same file. It avoids showing the unnecessary list of all functions.
  • Comment/uncomment block (/* ... */) instead of line comment (//).
  • Lots of minor UI fixes and code analysis improvements.