PhpStorm 2023.2 Help

Definition and type definition

In PhpStorm, you can see where and how symbols, such as classes, fields, methods, functions , or tags are defined in your project. For this purpose, the IDE features the Quick Definition popup.

Quick Definition popup

View definition of a symbol at caret

  • Place the caret at a symbol in the editor and press Control+Shift+I (or click View | Quick Definition in the main menu).

  • Alternatively, with the Control key pressed, hover over any symbol. PhpStorm displays the symbol as a link and shows its definition in a tooltip. Click this link to jump to the definition of the symbol.

    View definition in a tooltip

You can open a definition in the Find tool window. To do so, click the Options icon in the top-right corner of the popup and click Open in Find tool window Open in Find Tool Window.

To open the source code of the definition for editing and close the popup, click the Options icon and then click Edit Edit Source (F4).

Type definitions

The Quick Type Definition feature allows you to view the type definition of variables, properties, methods, or any other symbols in a popup without switching from the code you're editing.

  • Place the caret at the symbol for which you want to view the type definition and select View | Quick Type Definition.

    Viewing type definition in a popup

    To open the source code of the definition for editing and close the popup, click the Options icon and then click Edit Edit Source (F4).

PhpStorm doesn't have a default keyboard shortcut for this action, but you can manually configure it in the settings. For more information about configuring custom shortcuts, refer to Keyboard shortcuts.

Toolbar of the quick definition lookup

Use the icons on the toolbar of the popup to navigate to the source code of the definition and view its usages.

Icon

Keyboard shortcut

Action

App actions back App actions forward

Alt+Shift+ArrowLeft, Alt+Shift+ArrowRight

Navigate to the previous/next screen in the definition popup after using hyperlinks in the definition.

App actions edit

F4

Open the source code of the definition for editing, and close the quick definition lookup window.

View the definition source code

Control+Enter

Open the source code of the definition, and preserve the quick definition lookup window opened.

Last modified: 07 September 2023