Unused local variable

Locating this inspection

By ID

Can be used to locate inspection in e.g. Qodana configuration files, where you can quickly enable or disable it, or adjust its settings.

PhpUnusedLocalVariableInspection

Via Settings dialog

Path to the inspection settings via IntelliJ Platform IDE Settings dialog, when you need to adjust inspection settings directly from your IDE.

Settings or Preferences | Editor | Inspections | PHP | Unused symbols

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Unused local variable inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Enable inspection in global space

Option ID:

ENABLE_IN_FILE_SCOPE

Default value:

Not selected

Ignore a foreach value inside 'list()' or when a 'foreach' key exists

Option ID:

DONT_REPORT_FOREACH_VALUE

Default value:

Selected

Ignore variables inside 'list()'

Option ID:

DONT_REPORT_INSIDE_LIST

Default value:

Not selected

Ignore assignment to 'null'

Option ID:

DONT_REPORT_ASSIGNMENT_TO_NULL

Default value:

Selected

Ignore variables accessed via 'get_defined_vars()'

Option ID:

DONT_REPORT_INDIRECT_ACCESS

Default value:

Selected

Ignore variables before 'include'

Option ID:

DONT_REPORT_BEFORE_INCLUDE

Default value:

Selected

Suppressing Inspection

You can suppress this inspection by placing the following comment marker before the code fragment where you no longer want messages from this inspection to appear:

More detailed instructions as well as other ways and options that you have can be found in the product documentation:

• IntelliJ IDEA 2025.3

• PhpStorm 2025.3