Fix PHPStan L2 error "Variable $foo in PHPDoc tag @var does not exist. " - Low Hanging Fruit Edition

+++ b/core/modules/taxonomy/src/TermStorage.php
@@ -164,7 +164,6 @@ protected function getParents(TermInterface $term) {
    */
   public function loadAllParents($tid) {
-    /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface $term */
     return (!empty($tid) && $term = $this->load($tid)) ? $this->getAncestors($term) : [];
   }
 
@@ -198,7 +197,6 @@ protected function getAncestors(TermInterface $term) {

@@ -198,7 +197,6 @@ protected function getAncestors(TermInterface $term) {
    * {@inheritdoc}
    */
   public function loadChildren($tid, $vid = NULL) {
-    /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface $term */
     return (!empty($tid) && $term = $this->load($tid)) ? $this->getChildren($term) : [];
   }

I think in this case we should first check $tid is not empty, and return if it is. Then, load $term, and in this case we can keep the type hint, adding null to the signature. Then, return the final result. i.e.

   public function loadChildren($tid, $vid = NULL) {
     if (empty($tid)) {
       return [];
     }
     /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface|null $term */
     $term = $this->load($tid));
     return $term ? $this->getChildren($term) : [];
   }

Putting needs work for #6.
I like this proposed change, makes things more readible.
Other changes look good.

I Hope this will work here.
Thanks

Thanks @_pratik_

However instead of

if (!empty($tid) && is_numeric($tid)) {
+      /**
+       * @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface|null $term
+       *    Term object.
+       */
+      $term = $this->load($tid);
+      return $this->getChildren($term);
+    }
+    return [];

I would adjust this to

if (!empty($tid)) {
+      /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface|null $term */
+      $term = $this->load($tid);
+      return $this->getChildren($term);
+    }
+    return [];

This can be a single line comment for the var declaration.
Also checking for is_numeric is not needed here. This would be better typehinted on the method, but that's out of scope here.

Made changes as per the #10.
Please review.

This type-hint is useless here, please revert the change and remove hint

+++ b/core/modules/taxonomy/src/TermStorage.php
@@ -198,8 +197,12 @@ protected function getAncestors(TermInterface $term) {
-    /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface $term */
-    return (!empty($tid) && $term = $this->load($tid)) ? $this->getChildren($term) : [];
+    if (!empty($tid)) {
+      /** @var \Drupal\taxonomy\TermInterface|null $term */
+      $term = $this->load($tid);
+      return $this->getChildren($term);

this breaks logic, load() may return NULL but getChildren() expect entity

Converted to an MR and added a few more easy ones. The rest all require a bit more thought, so setting this for a review.

Seems like a good cleanup.

the 3 additions/moves of @var make sense to be added above the variables.

Is there something we can enable in our phpstan config or ignore entries we can remove here to prevent this coming back.

I'm wary of doing these in piecemeal chunks without a corresponding rule change to prevent it coming back - much like the approach we take for PHPCS

I've reviewed the parent issue and see that this was split to achieve some momentum, so in this case I'm ok with committing it, but ideally we'd be adding a rule or updating baselines etc to keep them from coming back.

Committed to 11.x

Thanks folks

@larowlan

Is there something we can enable in our phpstan config or ignore entries we can remove here to prevent this coming back.

that would be #3425412: [Sep 14, 2026] Bump PHPStan rule level to 3

Cheers 👍