File-scope unused variable not detected when ?> is present

[GaryJones]

Snippet 1:

<?php

$unused_variable = 'foo';

With the default configuration (phpcs --standard=VariableAnalysis -s phpcs-test.php), this is detected as "Unused variable $unused_variable (VariableAnalysis.CodeAnalysis.VariableAnalysis.UnusedVariable)". ✅

Snippet 2:

<?php

$unused_variable = 'foo';
?>

The addition of the ?> stops the violation from being reported, even though the variable is still unused. ❌

Tested in VA 2.11.0.

[sirbrillig]

That definitely looks like a bug. I hadn't considered files that use closing php tags (since they're generally discouraged) and I suspect that the sniff misidentifies them. We'll need to make it aware of that.

[GaryJones]

Consider the case of a template file which is most likely to contain file-scope variables, that may include many ?> and <?php as it breaks from PHP to HTML and back, then accounting for the ?> seems like an important thing :-)

[sirbrillig]

100% agree. I'm honestly surprised this hasn't been brought up before! I'm working on a fix.