Empty statements represented by a semicolon ; are statements that do not perform any operation. They are often the result of a typo or
a misunderstanding of the language syntax. It is a good practice to remove empty statements since they don’t add value and lead to confusion and
errors.
Noncompliant code example
function doSomething() {
; // Noncompliant - was used as a kind of TODO marker
}
function doSomethingElse($p) {
echo $p;; // Noncompliant - double ;
}
for ($i = 1; $i <= 10; doSomething($i), $i++); // Noncompliant - Rarely, they are used on purpose as the body of a loop. It is a bad practice to have side-effects outside of the loop body
Compliant solution
function doSomething() {}
function doSomethingElse($p) {
echo $p;
for ($i = 1; $i <= 10; $i++) {
doSomething($i);
}
}
