PHP Coding Standards

Fortunately for PHP developers, there is the PHP Standards Recommendation (PSR), comprised of the following five standards:

• PSR-0: Autoloading Standard
• PSR-1: Basic Coding Standard
• PSR-2: Coding Style Guide
• PSR-3: Logger Interface
• PSR-4: Autoloader

PSR was originally created based on inputs from maintainers of the most recognized platforms on the market. Zend, Drupal, Symfony, Joomla and others contributed to these standards, and are now following them. Even PEAR, which attempted to be a standard for years before that, participates in PSR now.

In some sense, it almost doesn’t matter what your coding standard is, as long as you agree on a standard and stick to it, but following the PSR is generally a good idea unless you have some compelling reason on your project to do otherwise. More and more teams and projects are conforming with the PSR. Tt’s definitely recognized at this point as “the” standard by the majority of PHP developers, so using it will help ensure that new developers are familiar and comfortable with your coding standard when they join your team