Predefined Constants

The constants below are always available as part of the PHP core.

The following constants (either the corresponding numerical value or their symbolic name) are used as a bitmask to specify which errors to report. It is possible to use bitwise operators to combine these values or mask out certain types of errors.

E_ERROR (int)

Fatal run-time errors. These indicate errors that can not be recovered from, such as a memory allocation problem. Execution of the script is halted. Value of the constant: 1

E_WARNING (int)

Run-time warnings (non-fatal errors). Execution of the script is not halted. Value of the constant: 2

E_PARSE (int)

Compile-time parse errors. Parse errors should only be generated by the parser. Value of the constant: 4

E_NOTICE (int)

Run-time notices. Indicate that the script encountered something that could indicate an error, but could also happen in the normal course of running a script. Value of the constant: 8

E_CORE_ERROR (int)

Fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup. This is like an E_ERROR, except it is generated by the core of PHP. Value of the constant: 16

E_CORE_WARNING (int)

Warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's initial startup. This is like an E_WARNING, except it is generated by the core of PHP. Value of the constant: 32

E_COMPILE_ERROR (int)

Fatal compile-time errors. This is like an E_ERROR, except it is generated by the Zend Scripting Engine. Value of the constant: 64

E_COMPILE_WARNING (int)

Compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors). This is like an E_WARNING, except it is generated by the Zend Scripting Engine. Value of the constant: 128

E_DEPRECATED (int)

Run-time deprecation notices. Enable this to receive warnings about code that will not work in future versions. Value of the constant: 8192

E_USER_ERROR (int)

User-generated error message. This is like an E_ERROR, except it is generated in PHP code by using the PHP function trigger_error(). Value of the constant: 256

Warning

Usage of this constant with trigger_error() is deprecated as of PHP 8.4.0. It is recommended to either throw an Exception or call exit() instead.

E_USER_WARNING (int)

User-generated warning message. This is like an E_WARNING, except it is generated in PHP code by using the PHP function trigger_error(). Value of the constant: 512

E_USER_NOTICE (int)

User-generated notice message. This is like an E_NOTICE, except it is generated in PHP code by using the PHP function trigger_error(). Value of the constant: 1024

E_USER_DEPRECATED (int)

User-generated deprecation message. This is like an E_DEPRECATED, except it is generated in PHP code by using the PHP function trigger_error(). Value of the constant: 16384

E_STRICT (int)

Run-time suggestions emitted by PHP about the executed code to ensure forward compatibility. Value of the constant: 2048

Warning

This error level is unused, and has been deprecated as of PHP 8.4.0.

E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR (int)

Legacy engine "exceptions" which correspond to catchable fatal error. Similar to Error but must be caught via a user defined error handler (see set_error_handler()). If not handled, this behaves like E_ERROR. Value of the constant: 4096

Note: This error level is effectively unused, the only case where this can happen is when interpreting an object as a bool fails. This can only happen for internal objects. The most common example, prior to PHP 8.4.0, is using a GMP instance in a conditional.

E_ALL (int)

Bit-mask that contains every single error, warning, and notice. Value of the constant: 32767