My own PHP CS Fixer setup: A practical example

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In my previous article, PHP CS Fixer: A Complete Guide to Installation, Usage, and Integration, I covered the fundamentals of PHP CS Fixer, including installation, usage, IDE integration, and GitLab CI/CD setup. Now, I want to share my personal PHP CS Fixer configuration, which ensures clean and consistent code across my private Symfony project.

PHP CS Fixer: A Complete guide to Installation, Usage, and Integration

My PHP CS Fixer Configuration

Here’s the .php-cs-fixer.php configuration file I use in my Symfony projects:

<?php

$finder = PhpCsFixer\Finder::create()->in([
    __DIR__ . '/src',
    __DIR__ . '/tests',
    __DIR__ . '/migrations'
]);

return (new PhpCsFixer\Config())
    ->setParallelConfig(PhpCsFixer\Runner\Parallel\ParallelConfigFactory::detect())
    ->setRules([
        '@Symfony' => true,
        '@PSR12' => true,
        'array_indentation' => true,
        'array_syntax' => ['syntax' => 'short'],
        'combine_consecutive_unsets' => true,
        'single_quote' => true,
        'ordered_imports' => [
            'sort_algorithm' => 'alpha',
            'imports_order' => ['const', 'class', 'function'],
        ],
        'no_useless_else' => true,
        'phpdoc_order' => true,
        'header_comment' => [
            'header' => "This file is part of the proprietary project.\n\nThis file and its contents are confidential and protected by copyright law.\nUnauthorized copying, distribution, or disclosure of this content\nis strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the author or\ncopyright owner.\n\nFor the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE.md\nfile that was distributed with this source code.",
            'separate' => 'both'
        ]
    ])
    ->setFinder($finder);

Why This Setup?

1. Targeted Codebase Scanning

• The Finder is configured to scan only the src, tests, and migrations directories.
• This avoids unnecessary formatting of vendor files or other non-essential directories.

2. Coding Standards Enforcement

• The @Symfony and @PSR12 rulesets ensure compliance with widely accepted PHP coding standards.
• array_syntax enforces short array syntax ([] instead of array()).
• single_quote ensures single quotes are used where possible, making string handling more consistent.

3. Code Readability Improvements

• array_indentation ensures arrays are properly indented.
• ordered_imports alphabetically organizes import statements and follows a specific import order: const, class, function.
• phpdoc_order ensures PHPDoc comments are structured consistently.

4. Unnecessary Code Removal

• combine_consecutive_unsets merges multiple unset() calls into a single statement.
• no_useless_else removes unnecessary else statements when the preceding if block already returns or exits.

5. Proprietary Code Protection

• header_comment automatically adds a proprietary notice to the top of each file, ensuring copyright and license details are included in every source file.

Running PHP CS Fixer via Composer

To simplify running PHP CS Fixer, I have added a custom script in composer.json:

"scripts": {
    "cs-fix": "./vendor/bin/php-cs-fixer fix"
}

Now, instead of typing the full command every time, I can simply run:

composer cs-fix

This makes it easier to enforce coding standards without remembering the full path to the binary.

How to Apply This Configuration

To use this setup in your Symfony project:

1. Copy the above configuration into .php-cs-fixer.php in your project's root directory.

2. Run PHP CS Fixer to apply the coding standards:

php-cs-fixer fix

3. Alternatively, use the Composer script for convenience:

composer cs-fix

4. Optionally, integrate it into a Git pre-commit hook or CI/CD pipeline to enforce consistent coding standards automatically.

Conclusion

This PHP CS Fixer setup has been a game-changer in my Symfony projects, ensuring a consistent coding style and reducing manual formatting efforts. By applying these rules, I can focus on writing clean and maintainable PHP code without worrying about style inconsistencies.

Have you customized your PHP CS Fixer configuration? Let me know your favorite rules and settings in the comments!