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phan

This item was not updated in last three versions of the Radar. Should it have appeared in one of the more recent editions, there is a good chance it remains pertinent. However, if the item dates back further, its relevance may have diminished and our current evaluation could vary. Regrettably, our capacity to consistently revisit items from past Radar editions is limited.
Assess

Phan is a static code analyzer for PHP7, which is very fast, since it uses the PHP 7 AST (abstract syntax tree). Phan basically offers some of the safety that otherwise only compiled type-safe languages have - such as checking function references and return types.

We expect at least the following benefits:

  • Decreased bug density; possible bugs and issues are found early
  • Safer code and higher code quality

We think Phan can be used in the deployment pipeline or as commit hooks for PHP 7-based applications. For a full Feature list check here.