How do you handle errors in PHP?

Handling errors in PHP can be done in several ways, depending on the type of error and your needs. Here are some common methods:

1. Error Reporting Settings

You can control error reporting by setting error_reporting() and ini_set() in your PHP script:

// Enable error reporting for development
error_reporting(E_ALL); // Report all types of errors
ini_set('display_errors', '1'); // Display errors in the browser

For production, you might want to log errors instead of displaying them:

// Disable displaying errors
ini_set('display_errors', '0'); 
// Log errors to a file
ini_set('log_errors', '1'); 
ini_set('error_log', '/path/to/error.log');

2. Custom Error Handling

You can set a custom error handler function using set_error_handler():

function customErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
    // Handle the error (log it, display a custom message, etc.)
    error_log("Error [$errno]: $errstr in $errfile on line $errline", 3, '/path/to/error.log');
    return true; // Prevents the default PHP error handler from running
}

set_error_handler('customErrorHandler');

3. Exception Handling

For handling exceptions, you use try-catch blocks:

try {
    // Code that may throw an exception
    throw new Exception("An error occurred");
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Handle the exception
    echo 'Caught exception: ',  $e->getMessage(), "\n";
}

4. Error Handling for Deprecated Functions

PHP also has a built-in error handler for deprecated functions and other errors. Use error_get_last() to retrieve the last error:

// Code that may produce an error
$result = someFunction();
if ($result === false) {
    $error = error_get_last();
    // Handle the error
    echo 'Last error: ', $error['message'];
}

5. Using Error Handling in Frameworks

If you are using a PHP framework like Laravel, Symfony, or CodeIgniter, they usually come with built-in error handling and logging mechanisms, which you can configure according to the framework’s documentation.

Would you like details on any specific method or approach?