What does @ mean

[Anon]

What is it's real name???

[[deleted]]

FAQ number 435:

the @ sign supresses errors.

@mysql_connect();

will never print any error messages.

DON'T use it.

[Anon]

Frank? John? Are you talking about the Pittsburg @s? I hear they're related to the Los Angeles @s, but that might just be a rumour.

[Anon]

You can use it on things like fclose or mysql_close so it doesn't chuck up an error if the link's already closed (not really hurting anyone there)

[[deleted]]

Not really hurting, but still you'd like to know that you are doing things twice, because if you are closing it twice, what else are you doing twice? :-)

[Anon]

True, but it's a good failsafe if you're handling the error. It doesn't look too professional to see a humping great php error message breaking your page apart, when a neat, little pre-formatted 'what the hell are you doing?' message would look much nicer 🙂

Because remember: 90% of your code is handling the exceptions to the rule.

[[deleted]]

It's only usefull IF you do error checking.

Most people use the @ sign as the magic wand to make all errors go away.

It does nothing for error checking, it just doesn't tell you when errors happen.
It's only use is if like you say, you have proper error checking and PHP's standard error messages are interfering:

Bad:
$db_connection_id=@mysql_connect();

Good:
if ($db_connection_id=@mysql_connect())
{

it worked

}
else
{
echo "Could not connect to database server";
};

[mattdevney]

Of course, in Star Wars there's the... "ahem"...

@@s

In which case it means "half a walking metal troop carrier" :-)

Sorry.