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Anonymous classes are not rejected with a clear error when creating a test double #6601
Description
Summary
The ParseError will be thrown when mocking anonymous class.
Current behavior
ParseError: syntax error, unexpected token "@", expecting "{"
How to reproduce
<?php declare(strict_types = 1);
use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
final class AnonymousMockTest extends TestCase {
public function testMock(): void {
$object = new class () implements Customizable {
#[Override]
public function customize(?stdClass $custom = null): void {
// empty
}
};
self::createMock($object::class);
}
}
interface Customizable {
public function customize(): void;
}Expected behavior
No error.
Activity
[-]ParseError: syntax error, unexpected token "@", expecting "{" when mocking anonymous class[/-][+]Anonymous classes are not rejected with a clear error when creating a test double[/+]sebastianbergmann commentedon Apr 29, 2026
Thank you for the report.
Creating a test double for an anonymous class is not supported, and it never has been. PHPUnit's test double generator works by assembling a PHP source string of the form
class MockObject_… extends <type> implements …and evaluating it viaeval(). The runtime "name" of an anonymous class, for exampleCustomizable@anonymous /path/to/file.php:11$27b, contains characters (@, space,/,.,:,$) that are not valid in a PHP class identifier and therefore cannot appear afterextends. That is why you see theParseErrorleaking out ofeval().Support for doubling anonymous classes will not be added. By design, an anonymous class is not referenceable by name outside the expression that creates it, so a generated double cannot meaningfully extend it, and an instance of such a double could not satisfy
instanceofagainst the original anonymous type in any portable way. If you need a test double that matches the same set of interfaces the anonymous class implements, please usecreateMockForIntersectionOfInterfaces([...])(or mock the individual interface, in your exampleCustomizable).What can and should be improved is the error message. PHPUnit should detect this case up front and raise a descriptive exception instead of letting a
ParseErrorfromeval()surface to the user. I will address that.Merge branch '13.1'
Closes sebastianbergmann#6601
Merge branch '12.5' into 13.1