Should You Use PHP's @ Operator to Suppress Errors?

Suppress Error with @ Operator in PHP: A Debatable Practice

PHP provides the @ operator as a way to suppress error or warning messages. However, its use remains controversial.

Reasons to Avoid Error Suppression

According to some PHP developers, there is virtually never a valid reason to suppress errors using the @ operator. The main argument is that it obscures valuable debugging information. When errors are suppressed, developers can miss critical issues that may arise due to changes in the codebase or runtime environment.

Seeking Alternatives

Instead of suppressing errors, it is recommended to handle them appropriately. For non-fatal errors, you can use error handlers to display custom error messages to the user while logging the actual errors for debugging purposes. For fatal errors, you can set display_errors to off in PHP.ini and enable error logging.

A Possible Justification

Despite the strong recommendations against error suppression, there are some who believe that it may be justified in limited situations. For example, if a file is not found, it may not be necessary to display the error message to the end user, as they can be provided with a more user-friendly message instead. However, this should be done with caution and only after considering alternative options.

Conclusion

The use of the @ operator to suppress errors in PHP remains a contentious topic. While it may be tempting to hide error messages for presentation purposes, it is generally agreed that doing so can lead to significant debugging challenges and missed opportunities for improvement. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to avoid using the @ operator and instead focus on handling errors in a meaningful way.

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