Req #51882 [Com]: Call To Member Function on Non-Object Should Throw An Exception

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51882&edit=1 ID: 51882 Comment by: binarycleric at gmail dot com Reported by: jacob at mediashaker dot com Summary: Call To Member Function on Non-Object Should Throw An Exception Status: Open Type: Feature/Change Request Package: *General Issues Operating System: Centos 5.3 PHP Version: 5.2.13 Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: I disagree with changing this from being a fatal error. Trying to call a method on an object that doesn't exist should always result in a fatal error because you are especially calling non-existent code. Trying to call a procedural function that doesn't exist should result in the same behavior. I personally wouldn't want anything other than a fatal error to occur if I tried to call "some_import_func($herp, $derp);" and it didn't exist, because there is really no sane way to recover from that. We have "function_exists" and "method_exists" for a reason. If you are having constant problems like this with your code then that is usually a symptom of a larger problem in how your application is structured. There are hacks and workarounds to get stacktrace information after a fatal error using things like "register_shutdown_function", but your code really shouldn't try to "recover" from a failure that catastrophic. I don't mean for this comment to have an "internet toughguy" additude, I'm just trying to show you that your code may have more serious problems then you realize. You already have a good number of tools in your toolbox, you just need to learn to use them better. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-05-21 19:19:32] jacob at mediashaker dot com Description: ------------ Call to a member function on a non-object is one of the most common reasons a php script might crash. Granted, there's often a whole chain of responsibility that falls apart for it to get to this point. The problem with this fatal error is that it provides absolutely no debugging or traceback information when it happens. PHP blows up on fatal errors and all you're left with is a line number and no idea how it got there. It would be awesome if it threw an exception with it's requisite traceback information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51882&edit=1