Error Handling

Error handling is an essential part of any application to ensure robustness and handle unexpected issues gracefully. PHP provides various error handling mechanisms.

Error Reporting

To display errors during development and debugging, you can use the error_reporting function in PHP:

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
?>

This setting will display all types of errors.

Error Logging

PHP allows you to log errors to a file instead of displaying them to the user. You can configure the error log file location and error logging level in the PHP configuration file (php.ini):

phpCopy code<?php
ini_set("log_errors", 1);
ini_set("error_log", "/path/to/error.log");
?>

Custom Error Handling

You can define your own error handling functions to handle errors in a way that suits your application. Here's an example:

<?php
function customError($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
    echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr<br>";
    echo "Error on line $errline in $errfile<br>";
    echo "Ending script";
    die();
}

set_error_handler("customError");

echo $test;
?>

In this example, the customError function is defined to handle errors. It is set as the error handler using set_error_handler.

Exception Handling

PHP also supports exception handling, which allows you to catch and handle errors and exceptions in a more structured manner. Here's an example:

<?php
try {
    $x = 5 / 0;
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Caught exception: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

In this example, a division by zero error is caught using a try-catch block.

Understanding and implementing proper error handling techniques is crucial for creating reliable and robust PHP applications.