equal.alwaysFalse

Code example

<?php declare(strict_types = 1);

/** @param positive-int $i */
function doFoo(int $i): void
{
	if ($i == 0) {
		// never reached
	}
}

Why is it reported?

The loose comparison using == always evaluates to false based on the types of the operands. Even with PHP's type juggling rules, these two values can never be considered equal. This indicates dead code or a logic error -- the branch will never execute.

In the example above, $i is a positive-int (always >= 1), so it can never be loosely equal to 0.

How to fix it

Fix the comparison to compare values that can actually be equal:

 /** @param positive-int $i */
 function doFoo(int $i): void
 {
-	if ($i == 0) {
+	if ($i == 1) {
 		// ...
 	}
 }

Or use strict comparison (===) if the intent is to compare identical types:

 /** @param positive-int $i */
 function doFoo(int $i): void
 {
-	if ($i == 0) {
+	if ($i === 1) {
 		// ...
 	}
 }