Explicit typing on property of instance - phpstorm

Question

To help my editor better understand my code, I sometimes need to add a comment like this:
/* #var $container Container */
This work good, but sometimes I would need something like this:
/* #var $this->container Container */
Is there something like this?

Answer 1

A few things first:
1. PHPDoc comments start with /**.
For compatibility reasons PhpStorm understands PHPDoc tags in ordinary /* comments as well, but you better use the correct symbols for them.
2. The correct order of elements for inline #var tag can be seen here:
https://github.com/phpDocumentor/fig-standards/blob/master/proposed/phpdoc-tags.md#517-var
/** #var [type] [element_name] [<optional description>] */
e.g.
/** #var Container $container */
Just as with #1: PhpStorm understands such comments even if elements are swapped around (for compatibility with other (old) IDEs / old code).
Your actual question:
Inline #var allows typehinting only local / ordinary variables. You CANNOT use it for compound variables (cannot use $this->container or $someObject->someVar here).
This is wrong:
/* #var $this->container Container */
// even if it uses correct order/style
/** #var Container $this->container */
If anything: such typehints should be provided in the actual class, above the actual property declaration (where you omit the [element_name] part) https://github.com/phpDocumentor/fig-standards/blob/master/proposed/phpdoc-tags.md#examples-15
class MyAwesomeClass
{
/** #var Container Optional description here */
protected $container;
...
}