PHP Exception Handling

PHP Exception Handling – Try, Catch & Throw Explained 🚀

Imagine PHP as a tightrope walker 🎪. When things go wrong (errors happen), instead of crashing down, PHP can use a try-catch safety net to handle the issue gracefully! 🤹‍♂️

PHP provides try, catch, and throw to deal with **exceptions** (unexpected problems) without breaking your entire application.

🔹 What is an Exception?

An exception is a special kind of error that can be caught and handled instead of stopping the script.

📝 Basic Example: Try & Catch

Let’s wrap a potentially risky operation inside try and handle errors using catch.

<?php
try {
    echo 10 / 0; // Division by zero causes an error
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Oops! Something went wrong: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Oops! 🤦‍♂️ PHP doesn’t like dividing by zero, but our catch block prevents a crash.

🔹 Using throw to Create Custom Exceptions

You can manually trigger (throw) exceptions using throw.

📝 Example: Throwing an Exception

<?php
function checkAge($age) {
    if ($age < 18) {
        throw new Exception("Access Denied: You must be 18+.");
    }
    return "Welcome!";
}

try {
    echo checkAge(16);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Result: This throws an error if the age is less than 18.

🔹 Catching Multiple Exceptions

You can handle different types of exceptions separately.

📝 Example: Handling Different Exceptions

<?php
try {
    throw new Exception("General Error!");
} catch (InvalidArgumentException $e) {
    echo "Invalid Argument: " . $e->getMessage();
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Caught Exception: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Tip: The catch blocks should go from most specific to least specific.

🔹 Using finally (Always Execute Code)

The finally block runs no matter what—whether an exception occurs or not.

📝 Example: Try, Catch & Finally

<?php
try {
    echo "Trying... <br>";
    throw new Exception("An error occurred!");
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "Caught: " . $e->getMessage() . "<br>";
} finally {
    echo "This always runs! ✅";
}
?>

Result: The finally block ensures some code always runs.

🎯 Key Takeaways

• try → Wraps risky code.
• catch → Handles exceptions.
• throw → Manually triggers an exception.
• finally → Always executes, no matter what.

📝 Practice Time!

Try throwing your own exceptions and handling them differently! Can you throw an exception if a username is empty? 🤔