Identifying PHP unused variables

Question

I have seen the below question and was wondering if there is something like it for Eclipse.

Also, how can I make sure that this kind of errors gets thrown into my trigger error function, so that I can write it to a log.

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 21 '21 at 16:04

Not sure it can report unused variables, but PHP_CodeSniffer is nice when it comes to detecting problems in PHP source code.

Still, it's a command-line tool, and it's not integrated in Eclipse PDT...

As a side note:

Unused variables (i.e., variables that get assigned a value, and are never used again) are not a problem in PHP -- so, they are not reported as an error nor anything by PHP itself
On the other hand, undeclared variables (i.e., variables that are being read from, while no value was assigned to them before) are not that good -- so, they are reported a notices by the PHP engine.

The post you are linking to is talking about the second kind, and not the first one.

To get undeclared/uninitialized variables reported by the PHP engine:

You have to enable error_reporting, and configure it so it report E_NOTICE
You can then have those reports either:
- displayed in the generated page (nice when developping) : display_errors
- or logged in a file: log_errors

But, here too, this is not integrated in Eclipse -- and I've never seen a tool that would parse the PHP error log, and push the notices to Eclipse...

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '21 at 16:10

1

The NetBeans IDE (I switched from Eclipse PDT last month) identifies and shows warning about unused and uninitialized methods, variables, etc.

edited Aug 21 '21 at 16:10

Peter Mortensen

answered Jul 14 '10 at 12:37

osm

I switched from Netbeans 8.2 to Eclipse Oxygen. I go back to Netbeans due to this missing feature.. Neatbeans show unused & uninitiated variables out of the box. – alexandre-rousseau Jan 30 '18 at 16:25

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 14 '10 at 10:27

0

Have you tried PMD Eclipse yet? According to my colleagues it is a pretty handy tool.

answered Jul 14 '10 at 10:27

BaumS

1

PMD is AFAIK only for Java, not PHP but a great tool indeed – DrColossos Jul 14 '10 at 10:39
From *https://pmd.github.io/#about*: *"PMD is a source code analyzer. It finds common programming flaws like unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and so forth. It supports Java, JavaScript, Salesforce.com Apex and Visualforce, PLSQL, Apache Velocity, XML, XSL."* – Peter Mortensen Aug 21 '21 at 16:14

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 21 '21 at 16:12

0

From the Eclipse (PDT) main menu, select Help → Install New Software.

Then enter the above URL in the 'Work with' edit box. Click Add. Check the 'PDT Extensions' checkbox. Click Next...

edited Aug 21 '21 at 16:12

Peter Mortensen

answered May 10 '18 at 11:53

CITBL

4 Answers4