I've seen code samples that use an @ before fopen as in
$fh = @fopen($myFile, 'w');
What's the significance of this @?
views:
44answers:
3
+5
A:
It suppresses errors an expression may display.
You can read more about it here.
Example:
file_get_contents('file_does_not_exist'); //this shows an error
@file_get_contents('file_does_not_exist'); //this does not
Tim Cooper
2010-03-28 02:48:27
I used this a great deal with mysql function calls.
James Black
2010-03-28 02:49:12
Thanks, is it good or bad practice then?
brett
2010-03-28 02:54:07
It's generally not a good idea. Instead, you should use a function like `is_writable` to test if a file is writable.
Tim Cooper
2010-03-28 02:55:53
For production applications, it's generally a bad idea - suppressing errors is a performance hit.
Amber
2010-03-28 02:58:43
@Dav a performance hit is a wild superstition. But using @ is still bad as it will leave programmer without critical info.
Col. Shrapnel
2010-03-28 09:57:03
A:
Using @ is always bad practice. It will suppress an error message if occurrs, while error messages are extremely useful for the programmer and suppressing it is suicide. PHP's fate is to be used mostly not by programmers but by casual users who have no clue. You've got this code from one of that latter kind. So, better to get rid of all @, so, you'll be able to see what happened and correct a mistake.
Note that every error message has it's particular meaning and explain what the problem is.
For example there can be filesystem permissions problem or PHP OPEN_BASEDIR setting to prevent file from open. So, an error message will tell you what to do. Error messages is good and @ is evil.
Col. Shrapnel
2010-03-28 10:07:02