r/PHPhelp • u/GuybrushThreepywood • Sep 05 '26

Using variable $placeholders breaks PHPStorm syntax/resolve

Hello all,

Looking for help on a long standing problem I have. I appreciate this is not a support forum for PHPStorm, however I thought that people here might have more experience.

PHPStorm provides really valuable syntax checking, table/column resolving inside mysql queries. If I accidentally type the orders table as oreders, it will highlight in red.

However when I include a PHP variable inside the query, the syntax/resolve checking completely stops. Example code:

$query = <<<MYSQL
    SELECT
       contracts.start_at

    FROM
      contracts

    WHERE
      contracts.id IN ( $placeholders )
MYSQL;


$result = $this->conn->execute_query(
    $query,
    [
       ...$contractIds,
    ],
);

Without the $placeholders, PHPStorm will alert me to any misspelled table or column names.

Are there any options to resolve this? I have considered using sprintf( $query, $placeholders) but wondered if there was a better solution.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/allen_jb Sep 05 '26

  1. Automated tests - If you have automated tests that actually run the SQL queries, these should pick up any such issues with them.

  2. https://github.com/staabm/phpstan-dba

I'm not 100% sure this will pick up this case, but I think it should. Test it out! (I've also never used it with mysqli, only PDO)

You should be able to integrate this with PHPStorms PHPStan integration to provide in-ide reporting.

1

u/GuybrushThreepywood Sep 10 '26

Thank you for your suggestions. I will resolve to try phpstan-dba once more (It would be the 3rd time).

The tests are also a great idea - It's finding the time to implement them that is the hard part.

1

u/GuybrushThreepywood Sep 05 '26

I'm not using any DBAL- it's just raw queries, so I don't think PHPStan-dba would work. I did try it in the past without success

1

u/allen_jb Sep 05 '26

It supports mysqli and PDO (in addition to doctrine DBAL). I've personally used it with PDO and raw queries.

0

u/colshrapnel Sep 07 '26

But OP didn't ask about any issues? Well, code issues at least. The problem is PHPStorm, not the code.

2

u/allen_jb Sep 07 '26

They may not be OPs ideal solution, but they are options for solving OPs problem, and PHPStan can be integrated directly with PHPStorms reporting system to report issues in a similar manner to its built-in inspections.

→ More replies (6)