PDO offers you a choice of 3 different error handling strategies, to fit
your style of application development.
PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT
This is the default mode. PDO will simply set the error code for you
to inspect using the PDO::errorCode() and
PDO::errorInfo() methods on both the
statement and database objects; if the error resulted from a call on a
statement object, you would invoke the
PDOStatement::errorCode() or
PDOStatement::errorInfo()
method on that object. If the error resulted from a call on the
database object, you would invoke those methods on the database object
instead.
PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING
In addition to setting the error code, PDO will emit a traditional
E_WARNING message. This setting is useful during debugging/testing, if
you just want to see what problems occurred without interrupting the
flow of the application.
PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION
In addition to setting the error code, PDO will throw a
PDOException
and set its properties to reflect the error code and error
information. This setting is also useful during debugging, as it will
effectively "blow up" the script at the point of the error, very
quickly pointing a finger at potential problem areas in your code
(remember: transactions are automatically rolled back if the exception
causes the script to terminate).
Exception mode is also useful because you can structure your error
handling more clearly than with traditional PHP-style warnings, and
with less code/nesting than by running in silent mode and explicitly
checking the return value of each database call.
See Exceptions for more
information about Exceptions in PHP.
PDO standardizes on using SQL-92 SQLSTATE error code strings; individual
PDO drivers are responsible for mapping their native codes to the
appropriate SQLSTATE codes. The PDO::errorCode()
method returns a single SQLSTATE code. If you need more specific
information about an error, PDO also offers an
PDO::errorInfo() method which returns an array
containing the SQLSTATE code, the driver specific error code and driver
specific error string.