Can you throw an array instead of a string as an exception in php?

Question

I want to throw an array as an exception in php, instead of a string. Is it possible to do this if you define your own class that extends the Exception class?

For example throw new CustomException('string', $options = array('params'));

Answer 1

Sure. It will just be up to your error handling code to be aware of, and make use of the array property appropriately. You can define your custom exception class's constructor to take any parameters you want, and then just be sure to call the base class's constructor from within the constructor definition, eg:

class CustomException extends \Exception
{

    private $_options;

    public function __construct($message, 
                                $code = 0, 
                                Exception $previous = null, 
                                $options = array('params')) 
    {
        parent::__construct($message, $code, $previous);

        $this->_options = $options; 
    }

    public function GetOptions() { return $this->_options; }
}

Then, in your calling code...

try 
{
   // some code that throws new CustomException($msg, $code, $previousException, $optionsArray)
}
catch (CustomException $ex)
{
   $options = $ex->GetOptions();
   // do something with $options[]...
}

Have a look at the php docs for extending the exception class:

http://php.net/manual/en/language.exceptions.extending.php

Answer 2

I think I'm a bit too late with an answer, but I wanted to share my solution as well. There are probably more people looking for this :)

class JsonEncodedException extends \Exception
{
    /**
     * Json encodes the message and calls the parent constructor.
     *
     * @param null           $message
     * @param int            $code
     * @param Exception|null $previous
     */
    public function __construct($message = null, $code = 0, Exception $previous = null)
    {
        parent::__construct(json_encode($message), $code, $previous);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the json decoded message.
     *
     * @param bool $assoc
     *
     * @return mixed
     */
    public function getDecodedMessage($assoc = false)
    {
        return json_decode($this->getMessage(), $assoc);
    }
}

Answer 3

If you don't want to extend Exception, you can encode your array into a string:

try {
  throw new Exception(serialize(['msg'=>"Booped up with %d.",'num'=>123]));
} catch (Exception $e) {
  $data = unserialize($e->getMessage());
  if (is_array($data))
    printf($data['msg'],$data['num']);
  else
    print($e->getMessage());
}

You can also use json_encode/json_decode if you prefer.