trigger_error

(PHP 4 >= 4.0.1, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

trigger_error — Generates a user-level error/warning/notice message

Description

trigger_error(string $message, int $error_level = E_USER_NOTICE): true

Used to trigger a user error condition, it can be used in conjunction with the built-in error handler, or with a user defined function that has been set as the new error handler (set_error_handler()).

This function is useful when you need to generate a particular response to an exception at runtime.

Parameters

message

The designated error message for this error. It's limited to 1024 bytes in length. Any additional characters beyond 1024 bytes will be truncated.

error_level

The designated error type for this error. It only works with the E_USER_* family of constants, and will default to E_USER_NOTICE.

Warning

Passing E_USER_ERROR as the error_level is now deprecated. Throw an Exception or call exit() instead.

Return Values

Always returns true.

Errors/Exceptions

This function throws a ValueError if error_level is not one of E_USER_ERROR, E_USER_WARNING, E_USER_NOTICE, E_USER_DEPRECATED.

Changelog

VersionDescription
8.4.0Passing E_USER_ERROR as the error_level is now deprecated. Throw an Exception or call exit() instead.
8.4.0The function now has a return type of true instead of bool.
8.0.0The function now throws a ValueError if an invalid error_level is specified. Previously, it returned false.

Examples

Example #1 trigger_error() example

See set_error_handler() for a more extensive example.

<?php
$password = $_POST['password'] ?? '';
if ($password === '') {
trigger_error("Using an empty password is unsafe", E_USER_WARNING);
}
$hash = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
?>

Notes

Warning

HTML entities in message are not escaped. Use htmlentities() on the message if the error is to be displayed in a browser.

See Also