Do not return nullsafe access by reference

#Metadata

Rule ID

php.correctness.nullsafe-returned-by-reference

Severity

high

Confidence

0.92

Languages

php

Presets

strict

Stability

stable

Applies to

block

Tags

correctness, php, rules-catalog

#Why it matters

Nullsafe access may evaluate to null, which cannot be returned by reference and triggers runtime errors.

#Remediation

Return a value by copy, guard against null before returning a reference, or avoid by-reference arrow functions for nullable targets.

#Repository path

The generated metadata points to critiq-rules/libs/rules/catalog/rules/php/php.correctness.nullsafe-returned-by-reference.rule.yaml.