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Inconsistent return points

Reports inconsistencies in function/method exit points.

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.

PhpInconsistentReturnPointsInspection
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 | Code smell

The following types of inconsistencies are reported:

  • The function/method contains the return statements both with and without arguments.

  • The function/method may return a value or otherwise end its execution without returning anything.

Technically these are not errors, but practically they usually indicate a programming mistake.

Inspection options

Here you can find the description of settings available for the Inconsistent return points inspection, and the reference of their default values.

Treat 'return null' and 'return' same way in 'void' functions/methods

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:

//noinspection PhpInconsistentReturnPointsInspection

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

Last modified: 18 September 2025