PHP Research & Evidence-Based Practice 4

Question 1

Which PHP configuration directive, when enabled, reveals all errors including notices and warnings, which is essential during research and development phases?

Accepted Answer

display_errors = On with error_reporting = E_ALL

Answer

Setting display_errors = On combined with error_reporting = E_ALL ensures every type of error, including notices and deprecations, is displayed during development.

Question 2

What PHP feature allows a developer to document code using a standardized format that tools like phpDocumentor can parse to generate API documentation?

Accepted Answer

DocBlocks with /** */

Answer

DocBlocks are structured comments beginning with /** that contain annotations like @param, @return, and @throws used by documentation generators.

Question 3

When researching PHP performance between two approaches, what is a key best practice to ensure benchmark results are statistically valid?

Accepted Answer

Warm up the environment and run multiple iterations averaging results

Answer

Warming up the environment and averaging multiple iterations removes outliers caused by JIT compilation, caching, and system variance.

Question 4

Which PHP function, added in PHP 8.0, allows developers to test nullable and chained property accesses safely, reducing the need for verbose null checks in research code?

Accepted Answer

The nullsafe operator (?->)

Answer

The nullsafe operator (?->) short-circuits the entire chain and returns null if any link in the chain is null, added in PHP 8.0.

Question 5

In PHP test-driven development (TDD), what does the 'red-green-refactor' cycle mean in practice?

Accepted Answer

Write a failing test, make it pass with minimal code, then improve the code

Answer

TDD's red-green-refactor cycle means writing a failing test (red), writing just enough code to pass it (green), then cleaning up the code (refactor).

PHP - PHP Programming Language Practice Test

PHP - PHP Programming Language Practice Test

PHP Research & Evidence-Based Practice 4