When should the '@' symbol be used in PHP functions?

The '@' symbol in PHP functions is used to suppress error messages or warnings that may be generated by the function. It can be useful in situations where you want to prevent error messages from being displayed to the user, such as when handling potential errors gracefully without disrupting the user experience. However, it is generally considered a bad practice to use the '@' symbol as it can make debugging more difficult and hide potential issues in the code. 

// Example of using the '@' symbol to suppress errors
$result = @file_get_contents('example.txt');
if($result === false) {
    echo "Error reading file.";
}

Keywords

@ symbol PHP functions error handling namespaces variable scope

Related Questions