Modification of the array returned from function by value won't have any effect

Reports call to a function that returns array by value, which makes the assignment operation non-working. Return by reference shall be used instead.

For example:

<?php
class A {
    private $values = [];
    public function getValues() {
        return $this->values;
    }
}
$config = new A();
$config->getValues()['a'] = 'a';

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.

PhpArrayModificationWillNotHaveEffectInspection

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 | Probable bugs

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:

//noinspection PhpArrayModificationWillNotHaveEffectInspection

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

Inspection Details
By default bundled with:	IntelliJ IDEA 2025.2, PhpStorm 2025.2, Qodana for JVM 2025.2, Qodana for PHP 2025.2,

Last modified: 18 September 2025