What causes "Invalid style value: {$value} Options:" in PHPOffice/PHPWord?

Use the style class's constants (e.g. Tab::TAB_STOP_TYPE_CENTER) instead of literal strings

PHPOffice/PHPWord · error · InvalidArgumentException

Invalid style value: Options

Error message

Invalid style value: {$value} Options:

What it means

AbstractStyle::setEnumVal validates that a style value is one of the allowed enumerated options for that style property; if the value is non-empty and not in the enum, it throws InvalidArgumentException listing the valid options. It is the generic enum validator for all PhpWord styles.

Solutions

Use the style class's constants (e.g. Tab::TAB_STOP_TYPE_CENTER) instead of literal strings
Check the exception message for the exact list of accepted options and correct the value
Normalize user input (trim, lowercase) and map it to a valid enum value before calling the setter

Example fix

// before
$tab->setType('middle');
// after
$tab->setType(Tab::TAB_STOP_TYPE_CENTER); // 'center'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$allowed = ['clear','left','center','right','decimal','bar','num'];
if (!in_array($value, $allowed, true)) {
    throw new ValueError("Tab type must be one of: " . implode(',', $allowed));
}
$tab->setType($value);

Try / catch

try {
    $style->setType($value);
} catch (\InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    // fall back to a safe default enum value
    $style->setType($style::DEFAULT_CONSTANT);
}

Prevention

Always use the class constants instead of string literals
Normalize/trim user input before passing to style setters
Write a unit test per style property enumerating accepted values

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a style property via setters like setType, setPos, setHPos, setVPos, setHPosRelTo, setVPosRelTo with a string not present in the style's allowed constants, e.g. (new Tab())->setType('middle') when only 'clear','left','center','right','decimal','bar','num' are accepted.

Common situations: Typo in style constant ('Center' vs 'center'); copying values from OOXML documentation that are not supported by PhpWord; case-sensitivity issues; passing user input directly into style setters.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of PHPOffice/PHPWord@aef95c0415 (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d4f525e4ccaed1e8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/PhpWord/Style/AbstractStyle.php:308

            $value = $default;
        }

        return $value;
    }

    /**
     * Set enum value.
     *
     * @param mixed $value
     * @param array $enum
     * @param mixed $default
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    protected function setEnumVal($value = null, $enum = [], $default = null)
    {
        if ($value != null && trim($value) != '' && !empty($enum) && !in_array($value, $enum)) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException("Invalid style value: {$value} Options:" . implode(',', $enum));
        } elseif ($value === null || trim($value) == '') {
            $value = $default;
        }

        return $value;
    }

    /**
     * Set object value.
     *
     * @param mixed $value
     * @param mixed &$style
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    protected function setObjectVal($value, string $styleName, &$style)
    {
        $styleClass = substr(static::class, 0, (int) strrpos(static::class, '\\')) . '\\' . $styleName;

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