classes should not have a constructor method with the same name as the class

[bkdotcom]

I got a false positive on this one.

class Foo
{

    /**
     * This is the constructor
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
    }

    /**
     * this is not a constructor

     * @return boolean
     */
    public function foo()
    {
        return false;
    }
}

The constructor is __construct() foo() is just a regular 'ol function and as such should not raise said error

[bolmstedt]

This error message is correct. foo() is a constructor, it just doesn't run. If you would remove __construct() it would start to run, which would be quite unexpected and dangerous.

You are probably thinking of constructors in namespaced classes.

From php.net:

As of PHP 5.3.3, methods with the same name as the last element of a namespaced class name will no longer be treated as constructor. This change doesn't affect non-namespaced classes.

Example 2 Constructors in namespaced classes

namespace Foo;
class Bar {
    public function Bar() {
        // treated as constructor in PHP 5.3.0-5.3.2
        // treated as regular method as of PHP 5.3.3
    }
}

EDIT: However, we still get the same warning with my example code. I think it's sound to give the warning, but maybe try and fix the wording (removing "constructor"), because it's quite a bad naming standard to have methods named the same as the class they belong to.

[bkdotcom]

also from the manual
http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.decon.php#object.construct

For backwards compatibility, if PHP 5 cannot find a __construct() function for a given class, and the class did not inherit one from a parent class, it will search for the old-style constructor function, by the name of the class. Effectively, it means that the only case that would have compatibility issues is if the class had a method named __construct() which was used for different semantics.

Nutshell: className is only a constructor if __construct is not defined or you you're using PHP 4

[bolmstedt]

Yes, you are correct, this violation should not be given. However, another violation, with different wording, should be. Something like "Classes should not have a method with the same name as the class", as I said before. Because doing that is a mess that should be detected by phpmd.

[internalsystemerror]

I'd like to help out with this issue as it comes up for me quite a bit and I'm currently using @SuppressWarning, to work around it :)

[jyggen]

Naming a method the same as the class is a mess and not an issue in my opinion. I agree with @bolmstedt though that the violation message should be changed.