PHP Best Practices

Modern PHP 8.x patterns, PSR standards, type system best practices, and SOLID principles. Contains 51 rules for writing clean, maintainable PHP code.

Step 1: Detect PHP Version

Always check the project's PHP version before giving any advice. Features vary significantly across 8.0 - 8.5. Never suggest syntax that doesn't exist in the project's version.

Check composer.json for the required PHP version:

{ "require": { "php": "^8.1" } }   // -> 8.1 rules and below
{ "require": { "php": "^8.3" } }   // -> 8.3 rules and below
{ "require": { "php": ">=8.4" } }  // -> 8.4 rules and below

Also check the runtime version:

php -v   # e.g. PHP 8.3.12