PHP throwables example

php-throwables.md

PHP exceptions and errors

In PHP, Exceptions can be caught:

try {
    throw new \DomainException('input out of bounds');
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    echo "got exception\n";
} finally {
    echo "finally\n";
}

got exception
finally

The code above prints both messages and doesn't let the exception propagate.

However, if we make a more serious mistake like dereferencing null, an exception is not thrown. A more serious thing called an Error is thrown. Error is not a subclass of Exception so catching it has no effect:

try {
    $x = null;
    $x->frob();
} catch (\Exception $e) {
    echo "got exception\n";
} finally {
    echo "finally\n";
}

finally
PHP Error:  Call to a member function frob() on null in Psy Shell code on line 3

The "exception" still propagated, though the finally handler was still run before doing that.

If you really want to catch everything that can go wrong, you need to catch Throwable, which is a superclass of both Exception and Error:

try {
    $x = null;
    $x->frob();
} catch (\Throwable $e) {
    echo "got exception\n";
} finally {
    echo "finally\n";
}

got exception
finally

Both handlers ran and no exception was propagated.