PHP Errors handling

Error handling refers to the process of dealing with runtime errors that may occur during the execution of a program. These errors can be caused by various factors, such as invalid input, resource exhaustion, or unexpected conditions. In PHP, error handling is primarily done using error reporting functions and techniques like try, catch, and throw.

Example with Clarification:


// Error reporting settings
error_reporting(E_ALL);  // Report all types of errors
ini_set('display_errors', 1);  // Display errors on the screen (for debugging purposes)

// Example of a division by zero error
$denominator = 0;
try {
    $result = 10 / $denominator;
} catch (Error $e) {
    echo "An error occurred: " . $e->getMessage();
}

In this example, we set the error reporting level to report all types of errors, and we enable displaying errors on the screen. We attempt to divide by zero intentionally, which triggers a "Division by zero" error. We catch this error using a try-catch block and display a custom error message.

Another example of error handling in PHP for a code snippet that contains an error. We'll intentionally introduce a syntax error in the code, and you'll see how PHP reports the error for debugging purposes


<?php
// Enable error reporting and display errors for debugging
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

// Intentional syntax error (missing semicolon)
echo "Hello, World"

// Rest of the code
$number = 10;
echo "The number is: " . $number;
?>

In this code, we've intentionally omitted the semicolon (;) at the end of the echo statement, causing a syntax error.

When you run this code with error reporting and display enabled, PHP will display an error message similar to the following:


Parse error: 
syntax error, unexpected '$number' (T_VARIABLE) in /path/to/your/script.php on line 6

This error message provides the following information:

Parse error : Indicates a syntax error.
unexpected '$number' (T_VARIABLE) : Specifies that the error occurred at the variable declaration line.
/path/to/your/script.php on line 6 : Shows the path to the script where the error occurred and the line number.

Enabling error reporting and displaying errors as shown in the code is helpful during development and debugging, as it helps you quickly identify and fix issues in your PHP code. However,
it's essential to disable these settings in a production environment to prevent potentially sensitive information from being exposed to users.