Forbidden-Else-Statements-Rule.md

Forbidden Else Statements Rule

Forbids plain else branches in class methods whose Full\Class\Name::methodName matches any of the configured regex patterns. This matches the same targeting convention as rules such as Method Must Return Type Rule (Fqcn::methodName as a single string).

elseif is not checked (it is a different AST node). Prefer early returns, guard clauses, or elseif where appropriate.

If patterns is empty, the rule does nothing. If analysis is not inside a class method (no class or no enclosing function in scope), the rule does nothing—for example, else at file scope or in a global function is not matched.

To apply the rule to every method on a class, use a regex prefix on the method side of ::, for example /^App\\Module\\Foo::/ or /^App\\Module\\Foo::.+$/.

Configuration Example

    -
        class: Phauthentic\PHPStanRules\CleanCode\ForbiddenElseStatementsRule
        arguments:
            patterns:
                - '/^App\\Presentation\\Http\\.*Controller::(handle|__invoke)$/'
                - '/^App\\Module\\.*::execute$/'
        tags:
            - phpstan.rules.rule

Parameters

• patterns: List of PCRE regex strings. Each pattern is matched against Full\Class\Name::methodName for the enclosing method. If any pattern matches, an else in that method is reported.