Customizing PDO Default Error Handling

In PDO, errors are typically handled by setting the PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE attribute to PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION. While this approach provides explicit control over error handling, it can be redundant to specify this attribute repeatedly. This article explores ways to configure PDO to automatically throw exceptions on errors by default.

By creating a library that handles database access, it's possible to set the error handling attribute in the constructor of the library's PDO instance. This ensures that all PDO instances created using the library will throw exceptions on errors. However, this approach does not provide a system-wide solution for all PDO instances.

Inspecting the PHP configuration files (like php.ini) reveals that there is no dedicated setting for configuring the default error mode for PDO. Therefore, it is not possible to configure PDO to throw exceptions by default through a configuration file.