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Essential PHP Coding Standards: Best Practices for High-Quality Code

M66 2025-09-20

Personal Insights on Following PHP Coding Standards

As a PHP developer, writing clean and maintainable code is crucial. Adhering to PHP coding standards improves code readability, maintainability, and team collaboration. The following content summarizes my experience with PHP coding standards and includes practical code examples.

Indentation and Code Alignment

Proper indentation and alignment significantly enhance code readability. In PHP, it is common to use four spaces per indentation level. Example code:

if ($condition) {
    // do something
    echo "Condition is true.";
}

Naming Conventions

Good naming conventions make code more readable. Variables, functions, and class names should follow camelCase notation, with descriptive names. Example code:

$myVariable = 10;

function myFunction() {
    // do something
}

Comments and Documentation

Adding comments and documentation helps others understand your code. Placing comments above functions or class definitions clarifies their purpose and usage. Example code:

/**
 * Calculate the sum of two numbers
 *
 * @param int $num1 First number
 * @param int $num2 Second number
 * @return int Sum of the two numbers
 */
function addNumbers($num1, $num2) {
    return $num1 + $num2;
}

Proper Code Segmentation and Spacing

Using appropriate code segmentation and spacing improves readability and clarifies logic. For example, inserting blank lines between different blocks within a function helps distinguish functionality. Example code:

function calculateTotal($prices) {
    $total = 0;

    foreach ($prices as $price) {
        $total += $price;
    }

    return $total;
}

Exception Handling

Proper exception handling increases code robustness. Use try-catch blocks for code that may generate exceptions. Example code:

try {
    // Code that may throw an exception
    $result = 10 / 0;
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Handle the exception
    echo "An error occurred: " . $e->getMessage();
}

Conclusion

Following PHP coding standards improves code readability, maintainability, and team collaboration. This article covers best practices including indentation, naming, comments, code segmentation, and exception handling, based on real project experience. Coding standards may evolve according to project needs and team preferences, so continuous learning and application are essential to writing high-quality PHP code.