What is the difference between the function calls “mail()” and “@mail()”?

+1 Q:

I am writing a PHP mail function and some examples have @mail(…) and others have just mail(…).

What is the difference and which one is best to use?

Cheers

+8 A:

@ supresses all warnings/errors, which mail() function may throw.

It is not good practice to use "@", because you never know if something doesn't work and also it hits the performance of you PHP application too!

Laimoncijus 2010-09-16 08:45:51

Brilliant :) That answered my question perfectly

Designer023 2010-09-16 08:48:19

+2 A:

I believe it's the same function but with error suppression

piddl0r 2010-09-16 08:46:02

Cheers :D It seems that it is an error suppression

Designer023 2010-09-16 08:57:55

+1 A:

@mail means you are suppressing any errors that might occur while trying to send the email, see this SO question for more information: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/136899/ddg#138110

Kristoffer S Hansen 2010-09-16 08:46:44

Cheers. That answers more of my questions. Thanks for the help

Designer023 2010-09-16 08:55:59

Error suppression is resource-consuming operation. It is recommended to call functions without @ and use exceptions/error handling

2010-09-16 09:02:11

I would normally use the non-suppressed functions, but I found the @mail in a site I have been maintaining and didn't want to mess with it too much.

Designer023 2010-09-16 09:08:14

ansaurus