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Error Identifier: ternary.alwaysTrue

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(\stdClass $std): string
{
    return $std ? 'yes' : 'no';
}

Why is it reported? #

The condition of the ternary operator always evaluates to true. This means the false branch ('no' in the example) is dead code and can never be reached.

In this example, $std is typed as \stdClass (a non-nullable object), which always evaluates to true in a boolean context. The ternary is therefore redundant.

How to fix it #

Remove the ternary and use the true branch value directly:

 <?php declare(strict_types = 1);
 
 function doFoo(\stdClass $std): string
 {
-    return $std ? 'yes' : 'no';
+    return 'yes';
 }

If the condition should be nullable, adjust the type to reflect that:

 <?php declare(strict_types = 1);
 
-function doFoo(\stdClass $std): string
+function doFoo(?\stdClass $std): string
 {
     return $std ? 'yes' : 'no';
 }

How to ignore this error #

You can use the identifier ternary.alwaysTrue to ignore this error using a comment:

// @phpstan-ignore ternary.alwaysTrue
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: ternary.alwaysTrue

Rules that report this error #

• PHPStan\Rules\Comparison\TernaryOperatorConstantConditionRule [1]

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