====== PDO - Exception Handling ====== PDO has three error handling modes. * **PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT** acts like mysql_* where you must check each result and then look at $db->errorInfo(); to get the error details. * **PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING** throws PHP Warnings * **PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION** throws PDOException. In my opinion this is the mode you should use. It acts very much like or die(mysql_error()); when it isn't caught, but unlike or die() the PDOException can be caught and handled gracefully if you choose to do so. query('hi'); // Invalid query! } catch(PDOException $ex) { echo "An Error occured!"; // User friendly message. some_logging_function($ex->getMessage()); } **NOTE**: You do not have to handle with try catch right away. You can catch it anytime that is appropriate. It may make more sense to catch it at a higher level like outside of the function that calls the PDO stuff: query("SELECT * FROM table"); return $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC); } ...then much later... try { getData($db); } catch(PDOException $ex) { // Handle me. } or you may not want to handle the exception with **try/catch** at all, and have it work much like or die(); does. You can hide the dangerous error messages in production by turning display_errors off and just reading your error log.