Re: The 'at' sign (@) variable prefix

>> mike schreef: >>> Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 12:17 PM, Daniel Brown <parasane@gmail.com >>> wrote: >>>>> I will get an error, but if I prefix the value with '@', >>>>> $query=@$_GET["q"]; >>>> The @ is an error control operator, used to buffer the output >>>> and store it in a variable - $php_errormsg. It's better to >>>> write clean, secure code, of course.... but sometimes error >>>> control is a good thing, too. why not just use: >>> $query = isset($_GET['q']) ? $_GET['q'] : ''; >>> that way it's always set. >>> or even better (what I recommend): >>> $query = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'q', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING); >>> and get an empty string or a sanitized string, depending on if >>> something exists. >> Mike's ways are both better than suppressing the error not only >> because error suppression in general sucks but because it's >> actually less performant to trigger this kind of error. > I second that. The @ symbol actually does this: > @action(); > Becomes: > $old = ini_set("error_reporting", 0); > action(); > ini_set("error_reporting", $old); > So, if you put that a hundred times all over your code, the errors > might be suppressed but your app is slow too. Thank you all. As I said, I learned this by osmosis, applying other people's code. I am not fluent in PHP. That is why I wanted a reference in the documents. I do not sprinkle the @ symbol through my code to avoid careful construction, I used it in a specific instance to deal with an empty query string, over which I had no control. I will study the alternatives offered here and do some recoding. -- Dave