Handling Errors and Exceptions in PHP

In PHP, errors can be classified into three main types: notices, warnings, and fatal errors. Notices are non-critical errors, usually triggered by minor issues that don’t affect the script’s execution. Warnings indicate potential problems that might lead to unexpected behavior. Fatal errors are severe and halt the script’s execution.

PHP provides various error handling techniques to deal with these errors. One common approach is the error_reporting directive, which allows developers to specify which types of errors should be reported. By setting the appropriate error reporting level, you can control the visibility of errors in your application. For example, to display all errors except notices, you can use:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>
Additionally, the ini_set() function can be used to modify the error reporting level within specific parts of the code:

<?php
ini_set(‘error_reporting’, E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
?>

In situations where errors might lead to exceptional conditions, PHP offers exception handling using try-catch blocks. Exceptions are objects representing errors, and the try-catch block allows you to catch and handle them gracefully. Here’s a simple example demonstrating the use of try-catch blocks:

<?php
function divideNumbers($numerator, $denominator) {
if ($denominator === 0) {
throw new Exception(“Division by zero is not allowed.”);
}

return $numerator / $denominator;
}

try {
$result = divideNumbers(10, 0);
echo “Result: $result”; // This line won’t be reached
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo “Error: ” . $e->getMessage(); // Output: Error: Division by zero is not allowed.
}
?>
By utilizing try-catch blocks, you can gracefully handle exceptional situations without abrupt script termination.