Error even when using a Try/Catch block in PHP

Question

I have a Laravel/PHP application with the following code:

try {
        //gets the day of the last record for logged in user
        $lastRecord = $user->records()->orderBy('date', 'DESC')->first()->date;
        //convert to date
        $lastTime = \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $lastRecord);
    }
    catch(Exception $e) {
        $lastTime = \Carbon\Carbon::now($user->timezone)->addDays(-1);
    }

but I still get the error:

ErrorException in Habit.php line 104:
Trying to get property of non-object

Now I'm confused.. The main idea was to fail sometimes, and then continue to the catch block. How come it's still raising an error?

are you sure you aren't causing another exception in your catch block? you sure that now() unconditionally returns an object? what line is #104 in that? — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented May 12, 2015 at 17:16
line 104 is: $lastRecord = $user->records()->orderBy('date', 'DESC')->first()->date; — sigmaxf
– sigmaxf, Commented May 12, 2015 at 17:17
is it possible that Laravel has some debug setting that will raise every error even on a try/catch block? — sigmaxf
– sigmaxf, Commented May 12, 2015 at 17:18
well, chase down the call tree. var_dump($user); var_dump($user->records()) etc... and see which of those calls returns something OTHER than an object. — Marc B
– Marc B, Commented May 12, 2015 at 17:19
can you post the call stack that you get with the exception? — Tim G
– Tim G, Commented May 12, 2015 at 17:21

Alana Storm · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-12 17:21:57Z

8

Just a guess, but try this instead

try {
    //gets the day of the last record for logged in user
    $lastRecord = $user->records()->orderBy('date', 'DESC')->first()->date;
    //convert to date
    $lastTime = \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $lastRecord);
}
catch(\Exception $e) {
    $lastTime = \Carbon\Carbon::now($user->timezone)->addDays(-1);
}

That is, add a leading namespace separator in front of Exception. My guess is you're using this code in a namespaced file. When you do something like this

namespace App\Some\Somenamespace;
...
catch(Exception $e) {
...

PHP assumes you want to catch an exception with the name App\Some\Somenamespace\Exception. Since that's not the exception thrown, and there's no second catch for the global PHP \Exception, PHP complains about an uncaught exception. You'll want to explicitly refer to the exception as global

catch(\Exception $e) {

or import it into the current namespace

namespace App\Some\Somenamespace\;
use Exception;
...
catch(Exception $e) {
...

FWIW, I still do this all the time. Old habits are hard to break.

answered May 12, 2015 at 17:21

Alana Storm

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1 Comment

sigmaxf Over a year ago

that was it.. I was confused because the error was on another line.. but now it worked.. Thanks Alan!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:07:50Z

0

The exception says that you are accessing a property of a non-object. This means that either $user itself or one of the properies in chain does not exist. It may be possible to avoid this by checking return values.

But if you still want to catch the fatal error, you may install a global shutdown handler, like this:

register_shutdown_function( "shutdown_handler" );

function fatal_handler() {
    $errfile = "unknown file";
    $errstr  = "shutdown";
    $errno   = E_CORE_ERROR;
    $errline = 0;

    $error = error_get_last();

    if( $error !== NULL) {
        $errno   = $error["type"];
        $errfile = $error["file"];
        $errline = $error["line"];
        $errstr  = $error["message"];

        error_mail(format_error( $errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline));
    }
}

taken from this SO post and this SO post.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:07

CommunityBot

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answered May 12, 2015 at 17:22

Shimon Rachlenko

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1 Comment

Alana Storm Over a year ago

An ErrorException has the global PHP \Exception as an ancestor, and catch (\Exception $e) (or catch (Exception $e) in a non-namespaced file) will always catch an exception.

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