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The value of the void typehint in PHP

Original – by Freek Van der Herten – 2 minute read

When the void typehint was introduced in PHP 7.1. There was some debate about it. Some people wondered if it is beneficial to type nothing? I was one of them. Meanwhile, I changed my opinion on it. In this short post, I'd like to give you a small example where I think void shines.

This is the example given in the Laravel documentation on local model scopes.

public function scopePopular($query)
{
    return $query->where('votes', '>', 100);
}

That return statement is a lie. Nothing is done with the result.

The given Builder instance in $query is mutable. In PHP, objects are being passed by reference. This means that the $query object in scopePopular is shared with the code that calls scopePopular. By calling where on it, the $query will change both for scopePopular as the code that calls it.

In my projects, I would write the scope above like this:

public function scopePopular(Builder $query): void
{
   $query->where('votes', '>', 100);
}

To me, this is more honest. The void typehint signals to me (and I hope to my team members as well) that there is no point in returning something, and that (in this case) the given parameter likely is mutable.

(Thanks for proofreading this, Brent)

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Ricardo Cabanelas liked on 15th October 2019
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Jens Segers replied on 13th October 2019
In legacy projects it's also valuable to see if it's a method that returns nothing, or just a really old method that wasn't converted to PHP 7 type hints yet ?
Wyatt liked on 12th October 2019
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Paul Redmond ?? replied on 12th October 2019
This is one of the first good arguments I’ve seen in favor of it. Thanks for the perspective ?
Mike liked on 12th October 2019
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Freek Van der Herten replied on 11th October 2019
Scopes, like the onein the example, aren’t meant to be chained
Lars Röttig retweeted on 11th October 2019
Marceau Ka ? replied on 11th October 2019
For your example (scope method), I always returns `Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder`, useful for chaining and my IDE.
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Julien Tardot replied on 11th October 2019
Sure you can! The scope method defined in your entity is not the one you actually call in a builder context (which involves some `__call` magic) `function scopeWhatever()` vs. `$builder->whatever()`
ArielSalvadorDev retweeted on 11th October 2019
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Andrej Guran replied on 11th October 2019
This is wrong. You can't chain your builder methods if you return void...
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Elie Andraos replied on 11th October 2019
Typo in: “In my projects, I would write the scope above like like this:” Duplicate “like”
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Teun de Kleijne replied on 11th October 2019
That's one of the reasons I like the stuff you come up with. People don't have to use it, don't have to share the same opinion, but you give some extra insights. Really appreciate all effort you put into sharing stuff! ?
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Scott replied on 11th October 2019
typo, missing the word change I think
Freek Van der Herten replied on 11th October 2019
thanks for bringing this to my attention, fixing
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