PHP 7.0.6 Released

error_reporting

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

error_reportingSets which PHP errors are reported

Description

int error_reporting ([ int $level ] )

The error_reporting() function sets the error_reporting directive at runtime. PHP has many levels of errors, using this function sets that level for the duration (runtime) of your script. If the optional level is not set, error_reporting() will just return the current error reporting level.

Parameters

level

The new error_reporting level. It takes on either a bitmask, or named constants. Using named constants is strongly encouraged to ensure compatibility for future versions. As error levels are added, the range of integers increases, so older integer-based error levels will not always behave as expected.

The available error level constants and the actual meanings of these error levels are described in the predefined constants.

Return Values

Returns the old error_reporting level or the current level if no level parameter is given.

Changelog

Version Description
5.4.0 E_STRICT became part of E_ALL.
5.3.0 E_DEPRECATED and E_USER_DEPRECATED introduced.
5.2.0 E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR introduced.
5.0.0 E_STRICT introduced (not part of E_ALL).

Examples

Example #1 error_reporting() examples

<?php

// Turn off all error reporting
error_reporting(0);

// Report simple running errors
error_reporting(E_ERROR E_WARNING E_PARSE);

// Reporting E_NOTICE can be good too (to report uninitialized
// variables or catch variable name misspellings ...)
error_reporting(E_ERROR E_WARNING E_PARSE E_NOTICE);

// Report all errors except E_NOTICE
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

// Report all PHP errors (see changelog)
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// Report all PHP errors
error_reporting(-1);

// Same as error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('error_reporting'E_ALL);

?>

Notes

Warning

Most of E_STRICT errors are evaluated at the compile time thus such errors are not reported in the file where error_reporting is enhanced to include E_STRICT errors (and vice versa).

Tip

Passing in the value -1 will show every possible error, even when new levels and constants are added in future PHP versions. The E_ALL constant also behaves this way as of PHP 5.4.

See Also

User Contributed Notes

info at hephoz dot de
7 years ago
If you just see a blank page instead of an error reporting and you have no server access so you can't edit php configuration files like php.ini try this:

- create a new file in which you include the faulty script:

<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
include(
"file_with_errors.php");
?>

- execute this file instead of the faulty script file

now errors of your faulty script should be reported.
this works fine with me. hope it solves your problem as well!
kc8yds at gmail dot com
7 years ago
this is to show all errors for code that may be run on different versions

for php 5 it shows E_ALL^E_STRICT and for other versions just E_ALL

if anyone sees any problems with it please correct this post

<?php
ini_set
('error_reporting', version_compare(PHP_VERSION,5,'>=') && version_compare(PHP_VERSION,6,'<') ?E_ALL^E_STRICT:E_ALL);
?>
keithm at aoeex dot com
5 years ago
Some E_STRICT errors seem to be thrown during the page's compilation process.  This means they cannot be disabled by dynamically altering the error level at run time within that page.

The work-around for this was to rename the file and replace the original with a error_reporting() call and then a require() call.

Ex, rename index.php to index.inc.php, then re-create index.php as:

<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL & ~(E_STRICT|E_NOTICE));
require(
'index.inc.php');
?>

That allows you to alter the error reporting prior to the file being compiled.

I discovered this recently when I was given code from another development firm that triggered several E_STRICT errors and I wanted to disable E_STRICT on a per-page basis.
ecervetti at orupaca dot fr
7 years ago
It could save two minutes to someone:
E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE  integer value is 6135
dave at davidhbrown dot us
10 years ago
The example of E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE is a 'bit' confusing for those of us not wholly conversant with bitwise operators.

If you wish to remove notices from the current level, whatever that unknown level might be, use & ~ instead:

<?php
//....
$errorlevel=error_reporting();
error_reporting($errorlevel & ~E_NOTICE);
//...code that generates notices
error_reporting($errorlevel);
//...
?>

^ is the xor (bit flipping) operator and would actually turn notices *on* if they were previously off (in the error level on its left). It works in the example because E_ALL is guaranteed to have the bit for E_NOTICE set, so when ^ flips that bit, it is in fact turned off. & ~ (and not) will always turn off the bits specified by the right-hand parameter, whether or not they were on or off.
DarkGool
10 years ago
In phpinfo() error reporting level display like a bit (such as 4095)

Maybe it is a simply method to understand what a level set on your host
if you are not have access to php.ini file

<?php
$bit
= ini_get('error_reporting');
while (
$bit > 0) {
    for(
$i = 0, $n = 0; $i <= $bit; $i = 1 * pow(2, $n), $n++) {
       
$end = $i;
    }
   
$res[] = $end;
   
$bit = $bit - $end;
}
?>

In $res you will have all constants of error reporting
$res[]=int(16) // E_CORE_ERROR
$res[]=int(8)    // E_NOTICE
...
rojaro at gmail dot com
5 years ago
To enable error reporting for *ALL* error messages including every error level (including E_STRICT, E_NOTICE etc.), simply use:

<?php error_reporting(-1); ?>
Marc17
2 years ago
To not display the E_DEPRECATED errors (for example) without changing the rest of the configuration :
error_reporting(error_reporting() & (-1 ^ E_DEPRECATED));
Daz Williams (The Northeast)
7 years ago
Only display php errors to the developer...

<?php
if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']=="00.00.00.00")
{
 
ini_set('display_errors','On');
}
else
{
 
ini_set('display_errors','Off');
}
?>

Just replace 00.00.00.00 with your ip address.
misplacedme at gmail dot com
6 years ago
I always code with E_ALL set.
After a couple of pages of
<?php
$username
= (isset($_POST['username']) && !empty($_POST['username']))....
?>

I made this function to make things a little bit quicker.  Unset values passed by reference won't trigger a notice.

<?php
function test_ref(&$var,$test_function='',$negate=false) {
   
$stat = true;
    if(!isset(
$var)) $stat = false;
    if (!empty(
$test_function) && function_exists($test_function)){
       
$stat = $test_function($var);
       
$stat = ($negate) ? $stat^1 : $stat;
    }
    elseif(
$test_function == 'empty') {
       
$stat = empty($var);
       
$stat = ($negate) ? $stat^1 : $stat;
    }
    elseif (!
function_exists($test_function)) {
       
$stat = false;
       
trigger_error("$test_function() is not a valid function");
    }
   
$stat = ($stat) ? true : false;
    return
$stat;
}
$a = '';
$b = '15';

test_ref($a,'empty',true);  //False
test_ref($a,'is_int');  //False
test_ref($a,'is_numeric');  //False
test_ref($b,'empty',true);  //true
test_ref($b,'is_int');  //False
test_ref($b,'is_numeric');  //false
test_ref($unset,'is_numeric');  //false
test_ref($b,'is_number');  //returns false, with an error.
?>
silvan at NOSPAM dot example dot com
9 years ago
On a shared debugging and production server it is convenient to use
<?php error_reporting(E_ALL); ?>
for debugging.

This will not help in case of parsing errors, so make sure you enable at least E_PARSE in your php.ini. Parse errors should not exist in production scripts.

Still, sometimes your script will not get executed even though no parse error is displayed (just a blank page/ no output at all). As far as I know this only happens when you redeclare a user function or class.

eg.
<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);

function
a(){}
function
a(){}
?>

This prevents your script from running like a parse error, but is in fact a fatal run-time error (E_ERROR). Other fatal run-time errors will allow your script to apply the error_reporting, when it is executed before the
error occurs (eg. put error_reporting on the first line of code.)
vdephily at bluemetrix dot com
11 years ago
Note that E_NOTICE will warn you about uninitialized variables, but assigning a key/value pair counts as initialization, and will not trigger any error :
<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL);

$foo = $bar; //notice : $bar uninitialized

$bar['foo'] = 'hello'; // no notice, although $bar itself has never been initialized (with "$bar = array()" for example)

$bar = array('foobar' => 'barfoo');
$foo = $bar['foobar'] // ok

$foo = $bar['nope'] // notice : no such index
?>
forcemdt
2 years ago
Php >5.4

Creating a Custom Error Handler

set_error_handler("customError",E_ALL);
function customError($errno, $errstr)
  {
  echo "<b>Error:</b> [$errno] $errstr<br>";
  echo "Ending Script";
  die();
  }
j dot schriver at vindiou dot com
15 years ago
error_reporting() has no effect if you have defined your own error handler with set_error_handler()

[Editor's Note: This is not quite accurate.

E_ERROR, E_PARSE, E_CORE_ERROR, E_CORE_WARNING, E_COMPILE_ERROR and E_COMPILE_WARNING error levels will be handled as per the error_reporting settings.

All other levels of errors will be passed to the custom error handler defined by set_error_handler().

Zeev Suraski suggests that a simple way to use the defined levels of error reporting with your custom error handlers is to add the following line to the top of your error handling function:

if (!($type & error_reporting())) return;

-zak@php.net]
fredrik at demomusic dot nu
10 years ago
Remember that the error_reporting value is an integer, not a string ie "E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE".

This is very useful to remember when setting error_reporting levels in httpd.conf:

Use the table above or:

<?php
ini_set
("error_reporting", E_YOUR_ERROR_LEVEL);
echo
ini_get("error_reporting");
?>

To get the appropriate integer for your error-level. Then use:

php_admin_value error_reporting YOUR_INT

in httpd.conf

I want to share this rather straightforward tip as it is rather annoying for new php users trying to understand why things are not working when the error-level is set to (int) "E_ALL" = 0...

Maybe the PHP-developers should make ie error_reporting("E_ALL"); output a E_NOTICE informative message about the mistake?
Alex
9 years ago
error_reporting() may give unexpected results if the @ error suppression directive is used.

<?php
@include 'config.php';
include
'foo.bar';        // non-existent file
?>

config.php
<?php
error_reporting
(0);
?>

will throw an error level E_WARNING in relation to the non-existent file (depending of course on your configuration settings).  If the suppressor is removed, this works as expected.

Alternatively using ini_set('display_errors', 0) in config.php will achieve the same result.  This is contrary to the note above which says that the two instructions are equivalent.
Fernando Piancastelli
11 years ago
The error_reporting() function won't be effective if your display_errors directive in php.ini is set to "Off", regardless of level reporting you set. I had to set

display_errors = On
error_reporting = ~E_ALL

to keep no error reporting as default, but be able to change error reporting level in my scripts.
I'm using PHP 4.3.9 and Apache 2.0.
Chris
9 years ago
I found some simple mistakes in the functions I posted yesterday, so here are the corrected versions.
And a good advice: never code in the middle of the night ;)

<?php
function error2string($value)
{
   
$level_names = array(
       
E_ERROR => 'E_ERROR', E_WARNING => 'E_WARNING',
       
E_PARSE => 'E_PARSE', E_NOTICE => 'E_NOTICE',
       
E_CORE_ERROR => 'E_CORE_ERROR', E_CORE_WARNING => 'E_CORE_WARNING',
       
E_COMPILE_ERROR => 'E_COMPILE_ERROR', E_COMPILE_WARNING => 'E_COMPILE_WARNING',
       
E_USER_ERROR => 'E_USER_ERROR', E_USER_WARNING => 'E_USER_WARNING',
       
E_USER_NOTICE => 'E_USER_NOTICE' );
    if(
defined('E_STRICT')) $level_names[E_STRICT]='E_STRICT';
   
$levels=array();
    if((
$value&E_ALL)==E_ALL)
    {
       
$levels[]='E_ALL';
       
$value&=~E_ALL;
    }
    foreach(
$level_names as $level=>$name)
        if((
$value&$level)==$level) $levels[]=$name;
    return
implode(' | ',$levels);
}
?>

<?php
function string2error($string)
{
   
$level_names = array( 'E_ERROR', 'E_WARNING', 'E_PARSE', 'E_NOTICE',
       
'E_CORE_ERROR', 'E_CORE_WARNING', 'E_COMPILE_ERROR', 'E_COMPILE_WARNING',
       
'E_USER_ERROR', 'E_USER_WARNING', 'E_USER_NOTICE', 'E_ALL' );
    if(
defined('E_STRICT')) $level_names[]='E_STRICT';
   
$value=0;
   
$levels=explode('|',$string);
    foreach(
$levels as $level)
    {
       
$level=trim($level);
        if(
defined($level)) $value|=(int)constant($level);
    }
    return
$value;
}
?>
teynon1 at gmail dot com
4 years ago
It might be a good idea to include E_COMPILE_ERROR in error_reporting.

If you have a customer error handler that does not output warnings, you may get a white screen of death if a "require" fails.

Example:
<?php
  error_reporting
(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);

  function
myErrorHandler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline) {
   
// Do something other than output message.
   
return true;
  }

 
$old_error_handler = set_error_handler("myErrorHandler");

  require
"this file does not exist";
?>

To prevent this, simply include E_COMPILE_ERROR in the error_reporting.

<?php
  error_reporting
(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE | E_COMPILE_ERROR);
?>
antickon AT gmail.com
9 years ago
regarding what vdephily at bluemetrix dot com said ( see http://be.php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php#50228 )

<?php
echo $foobar->field;
?>

also initializes $foobar (as an instance of stdClass), so this code will not cause any notices.
ferozzahid [at] usa [dot] com
11 years ago
To be enable to switch between error_reporting during development and release phases, one can define say 'php_error_reporting' in the main configuration file (ini like file: no PHP) for the application as:

# config.ini
# PHP error reporting. supported values are given below.
# 0 - Turn off all error reporting
# 1 - Running errors
# 2 - Running errors + notices
# 3 - All errors except notices and warnings
# 4 - All errors except notices
# 5 - All errors

php_error_reporting=4

# config.ini ends

Setting error_reporting in PHP files would be something like the code below, assuming the function getinivar() returns the variable value from the configuration file.

<?php
// setting PHP error reporting
switch(getinivar('php_error_reporting')) {
case
0: error_reporting(0); break;
case
1: error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE); break;
case
2: error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE | E_NOTICE); break;
case
3: error_reporting(E_ALL ^ (E_NOTICE | E_WARNING)); break;
case
4: error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE); break;
case
5: error_reporting(E_ALL); break;
default:
   
error_reporting(E_ALL);
}
?>

Feroz Zahid.
derek at darkcolors dot com
7 years ago
I had the problem that if there was an error, php would just give me a blank page.  Any error at all forced a blank page instead of any output whatsoever, even though I made sure that I had error_reporting set to E_ALL, display_errors turned on, etc etc.  But simply running the file in a different directory allowed it to show errors!

Turns out that the error_log file in the one directory was full (2.0 Gb).  I erased the file and now errors are displayed normally.  It might also help to turn error logging off.
Rash
1 year ago
If you are using the PHP development server, run from the command line via `php -S servername:port`, every single error/notice/warning will be reported in the command line itself, with file name, and line number, and stack trace.

So if you want to keep a log of all the errors even after page reloads (for help in debugging, maybe), running the PHP development server can be useful.
roberto at spadim dot com dot br
6 years ago
see more information about php 5.3 deprecated errors

http://php.net/manual/en/migration53.deprecated.php
qeremy ! gmail
1 year ago
If you want to see all errors in your local environment, you can set your project URL like "foo.com.local" locally and put that in bootstrap file.

<?php
if (substr($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], -6) == '.local') {
   
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
   
ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);
   
// or error_reporting(E_ALL);
}
?>
webmaster at l-i-e dot com
16 years ago
[Editor's Note: E_ALL will contain the result of OR'ing all of the applicable error constants together. For PHP 3, this will be the first 4 E_xxx constants.  For PHP 4, this will be all constants. ]

There is also an E_ALL which is the first 4 E_xxx added up for you...
phpfanat at yandex dot ru
11 years ago
If you get a weird mysql warnings like "Warning: mysql_query() [http://www.mysql.com/doc]: Your query requires a full tablescan...", don't look for error_reporting settings - it's set in php.ini.
You can turn it off with
ini_set("mysql.trace_mode","Off");
in your script

And, as of my opinion, it should be NOTICE, not WARNING level.
ywarnier at beeznest dot org
4 years ago
Setting error_reporting in your VirtualHost has to be done through a numerical value which is the result of the options you choose summed up from the values of these options, as defined on the constants page for the error management functions: http://www.php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.constants.php

As a result, E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE would be set this way (this automatically excludes E_DEPRECATED AND E_USER_DEPRECATED):

  php_value error_reporting 6135

whereas E_ALL (excluding the deprecated levels) would be set this way:

  php_value error_reporting 6143

The difference between those two values is 8, which is the value of the constant for E_NOTICE.
polecat1
2 years ago
Most of you know that a script can give different results online compared to your local machine (PHP versions, settings). Nobody wants to see an error message on your online website, like "Access denied for user 'YOURUSERNAME'@'localhost' (using password: YOURPASSWORD)". But sometimes we do need this information on our online site for debugging. Here's a little trick.
On your local machine for your own browser create a cookie, something like:
setcookie ("your-website.com-testing", "1", time()+60*60*24*300);
Then in all your pages (or in includes) add the following line:
if (!isset($_COOKIE["your-website.com-testing"])) {
    error_reporting(0);
}
This way errors will be reported ONLY when the page is displayed in YOUR browser.
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