@ in php

can anyone tell me it's exact purpose

[HelenDev]

I see the at sign in many php scripts I come across, but I don't know it's exact meaning and purpose. Can anyone tell me? Feel free to point me to the relevant part of the php manual.

I've had a hard time googling for '@' or 'at sign' ;)

[stevenmusumeche]

It is to supress error/warning messages for the command that it preceeds.

[jatar_k]

Error Control Operators [ca2.php.net]

[bcolflesh]

Be careful - it also suppresses all other error messages in the file - as noted in the comments on:

[us4.php.net...]

[HelenDev]

Thanks for the info guys :)

So, what is the benefit of using it?

[bcolflesh]

Not exposing server or path information to web users if your code fails.

[jatar_k]

I don't really use it much actually

It is only useful for live code that has been thoroughly tested and QA'ed.

In development I want to see all the mess of errors.

Once live, I prefer to use functions to handle errors and show nice user friendly messages yet give a full report to me in the logs.