Is there a PHP validator?

Question

Is there a PHP validator like there is an HTML validator at w3.org?

Answer 1

PHP engine itself.

To turn on error messages:

error_reporting(E_ALL);

Answer 2

You can run php with the -l or --syntax-check flag. It checks the syntax of the supplied file without actually running it

php --syntax-check myfile.php

Answer 3

You can validate the syntax without running a PHP script itself, using php from the command line, with the option "-l" :

$ php --help 
Usage: php [options] [-f] <file> [--] [args...]
       php [options] -r <code> [--] [args...]  
       php [options] [-B <begin_code>] -R <code> [-E <end_code>] [--] [args...]
       php [options] [-B <begin_code>] -F <file> [-E <end_code>] [--] [args...]
       php [options] -- [args...]
       php [options] -a
  ...
  -l               Syntax check only (lint)
  ...

For example, with a file that contains :

<?php

,


die;

?>

(Note the obvious error)

You'll get :

$ php -l temp.php
PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected ',' in temp.php on line 3

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ',' in temp.php on line 3
Errors parsing temp.php

Integrating this in a build process, or as a pre-commit SVN hook, is nice, btw : it helps avoiding having syntax errors in production ^^

Answer 4

Building on what others have said:

error_reporting(E_ALL);

Simply using PHP's own error messages is good enough. However, if you really want to get anal and use a set "standard" you can opt for a PHP Code Sniffer, which for example you can implement as pre-commit hooks to your version control system.

Here's a SO question which explains their usefulness: How useful is PHP CodeSniffer? Code Standards Enforcement in General?