What is phpdoc in phpstorm?

For documentation comments, IntelliJ IDEA provides completion that is enabled by default. IntelliJ IDEA creates stubs of PHPDoc blocks when you type the /** opening tag and press Enter, or press Alt+Insert and appoint the code construct (a class, a method, a function, and so on) to document. Depending on your choice, IntelliJ IDEA will create the required tags or add an empty documentation stub.

If you need additional PHP-specific tags, IntelliJ IDEA provides code completion that suggests the tag names that are relevant in the current context. If a certain tag has multiple values, code completion provides a list of available values.

In PHPDoc comments, IntelliJ IDEA supports formatting options in compliance with the ZEND, PEAR, and other coding standards.

PHPDoc comments in your source code are available for Quick Documentation Lookup, which helps you get quick information for any documented symbol. You can open them for review in the Documentation tool window by pressing Ctrl+Q.

Install the PHP plugin

This functionality relies on the PHP plugin that should be installed and enabled in your IDE.

The plugin is available only in IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select .

  2. Switch to the Marketplace tab and use the search field to find the PHP plugin.

  3. Click Install and restart the IDE if prompted.

Enable documentation comments

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select .

  2. In the Enter section, select or clear Insert documentation comment stub checkbox.

Generate a PHPDoc block for a code construct

  1. To invoke generation of a PHPDoc block, do one of the following:

    • Place the caret before the required code construct (class, method, function, and so on), type the opening block comment /**, and press Enter.

    • In the editor context menu, select and choose the code construct to generate PHPDoc comments for.

    • Press Alt+Insert, then select Generate PHPDoc blocks, and choose the code construct to generate PHPDoc comments for.

    What is phpdoc in phpstorm?

    IntelliJ IDEA analyzes the appointed code construct, extracts the data for parameters, return values, variables, or fields where possible, and on this basis generates a stub of a documentation block.

  2. Describe the listed parameters and return values where necessary. IntelliJ IDEA checks and treats syntax in comments according to the code inspection settings.

Create tags in a PHPDoc comment block

IntelliJ IDEA analyzes the appointed code construct, extracts the data for parameters, return values, variables, or fields where possible, and on this basis generates a stub of a documentation block. If necessary, you can fill in the missing information.

  1. In a PHPDoc block, select the desired empty line and press Ctrl+Space.

  2. Select the relevant tag from the suggestion list.

  3. If the entered tag has several values, press Ctrl+Space and select the desired value from the suggestion list.

Configure formatting inside PHPDoc comments

You can configure the appearance of PHPDoc comments, the presentation of class names, and the default tags sorting order. Note that the tag for properties is no longer configurable, the default @var tag is inserted automatically. See https://github.com/phpDocumentor/fig-standards/pull/55 for details.

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), go to .

  2. Switch to the PHPDoc tab an configure the desired appearance options by selecting or clearing the checkboxes.

  3. Specify how you want IntelliJ IDEA to present class names for properties, function parameters, return and throws values, and so on, by selecting or clearing the Use fully-qualified class names checkbox.

  4. If necessary, define how the generated PHPDoc tags should be sorted by selecting the Sort PHPDoc tags checkbox.

    • Use and to add or remove the PHPDoc tag entries from the list.

    • Use and to arrange the PHPDoc tag entries order.

Using PHPDoc code inspections

IntelliJ IDEA provides a set of predefined code inspections targeted at PHPDoc blocks. These inspections check whether classes, methods, functions, variables, and constants are supplied with a PHPDoc comment and whether the tags in the comment match the documented item.

Enable or disable a PHPDoc inspection

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select .

  2. On the Inspections page that opens, expand the PHPDoc node under PHP.

  3. In the list of predefined inspections that opens, enable or disable an inspection by selecting or clearing the checkbox next to it.

Check that PHPDoc comments are provided for code constructs of a certain type

  1. Enable the Missing PHPDoc Comment inspection.

  2. In the Options area, select the checkboxes next to the required element type: class, method, function, variable, or constant.

    To suppress reporting a Missing PHPDoc Comment error if a method or function does not contain any parameters or return values, select the Ignore PHPDoc without @param/@return checkbox.

Last modified: 14 July 2022

What are PHPDoc comments?

phpDoc blocks are descriptive comments that are part of the application code. They are used to describe the PHP element in the exact location in the code where the element appears. The block consists of a short description, long description, and phpDoc tags.

Why must you use PHPDoc syntax to document code?

PhpDoc, short for PhpDocumentor, is a powerful tool that allows you to easily document your code via specially formatted comments. The documentation will be available not only in the source code, but also in professional documentation extracted using either the web or command-line interface.