Question

I see this (@var) in php comments a lot and have no clue what it means. Please tell.

// example.php (taken from yii framework application code)

<?php
/* @var $this CategoriesController */
/* @var $data Categories */
?>

<div class="view">

    <b><?php echo CHtml::encode($data->getAttributeLabel('idCategory')); ?>:</b>
    <?php echo CHtml::link(CHtml::encode($data->idCategory), array('view', 'id'=>$data->idCategory)); ?>
    <br />
</div>

Answer 1

You may use the @var tag to document the data type of class variables.

The datatype should be a valid PHP type (int, string, bool, etc), a
class name for the type of object, or simply "mixed". phpDocumentor
will display the optional description unmodified, and defaults to
"mixed" if the datatype is not present

https://manual.phpdoc.org/HTMLSmartyConverter/PHP/phpDocumentor/tutorial_tags.var.pkg.html

With the @var tag it is possible to document the type and function of a class property. When provided it MUST contain a Type to indicate
what is expected; the description on the other hand is OPTIONAL yet
RECOMMENDED in case of complicated structures, such as associative
arrays.

The @var tag MAY have a multi-line description and does not need
explicit delimiting.

It is RECOMMENDED when documenting to use this tag with every
property.

This tag MUST NOT occur more than once per property in a PHPDoc and is
limited to Structural Elements of type property.

Example:

class DemoVar
{
   /**
    * Summary
    *
    * @var object Description
    */
   protected $varWithDescriptions;

   /**
    * @var \DemoVar $instance The class instance.
    */
   protected static $instance;

   /**
    * Summary for varWithWrongType
    *
    * @var boolean The varWithWrongType. Boolean will be put in the type.
    */
   protected $varWithWrongType = array();
}