Significance of the @ sign in PHP call

Question

I'm working through some PHP code and cannot figure out what the significance of the @ sign is in this code:

    $data = @fread($_socket, 8192);

I wasn't able to find many other examples on php.net either that explain what @ does, instead it is just used.

Thanks

If you see one feel free to tickle torture the author of said code until he cries and screams for mercy. Then gloat. — , Jul 15 '10 at 21:59
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/136899/suppress-error-with-operator-in-php — gnarf, Jul 15 '10 at 22:30

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:56

6

The @ suppress the error message that would occur if what is on the right-hand of the @ were to fail.

answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:56

dalton

3

And it's also the cause of the White Screen of Death (where no error messages are shown or logged, yet the script aborts)... – ircmaxell Jul 15 '10 at 21:58
It's also a very minor performance hit. The bytecode compiler has to go out of the way to turn off error reporting just for that one statement, then turn it on again. Avoid it! – Charles Jul 15 '10 at 22:00

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:58

3

That's the error control operator, which suppresses error messages.

answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:58

Michael Borgwardt

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:57

0

it's used as a directive to suppress error messages from the call

answered Jul 15 '10 at 21:57

STW

3 Answers3