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Error Identifier: return.empty

Every error reported by PHPStan has an error identifier. Here’s a list of all error identifiers. In PHPStan Pro you can see the error identifier next to each error and filter errors by their identifiers.

Code example #

<?php declare(strict_types = 1);

function doFoo(): string
{
	return;
}

Why is it reported? #

A bare return; statement (without a value) is used in a function that declares a non-void return type. In the example above, the function is declared to return string, but the return statement does not provide a value.

How to fix it #

Return a value that matches the declared return type:

 <?php declare(strict_types = 1);
 
 function doFoo(): string
 {
-	return;
+	return '';
 }

Or change the return type to void if the function is not meant to return a value.

How to ignore this error #

You can use the identifier return.empty to ignore this error using a comment:

// @phpstan-ignore return.empty
codeThatProducesTheError();

You can also use only the identifier key to ignore all errors of the same type in your configuration file in the ignoreErrors parameter:

parameters:
	ignoreErrors:
		-
			identifier: return.empty

Rules that report this error #

• PHPStan\Rules\Functions\ArrowFunctionReturnTypeRule [1]
• PHPStan\Rules\Functions\ClosureReturnTypeRule [1]
• PHPStan\Rules\Functions\ReturnTypeRule [1]
• PHPStan\Rules\Methods\ReturnTypeRule [1]

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