What are the differences in die() and exit() in PHP?

Question

What are the differences between die() and exit() functions in PHP?

I think both have the same functionality, but I doubt there is something different in both... what is it?

Answer 1

There's no difference - they are the same.

PHP Manual for exit:

Note: This language construct is equivalent to die().

PHP Manual for die:

This language construct is equivalent to exit().

Answer 2

DIFFERENCE IN ORIGIN

The difference between die() and exit() in PHP is their origin.

• exit() is from exit() in C.
• die() is from die in Perl.

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FUNCTIONALLY EQUIVALENT

die() and exit() are equivalent functions.

PHP Manual

PHP Manual for die:

This language construct is equivalent to exit().

PHP Manual for exit:

Note: This language construct is equivalent to die().

PHP Manual for List of Function Aliases:

die is an alias for master function exit()

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DIFFERENT IN OTHER LANGUAGES

die() and exit() are different in other languages but in PHP they are identical.

From Yet another PHP rant:

...As a C and Perl coder, I was ready to answer, "Why, exit() just bails off the program with a numeric exit status, while die() prints out the error message to stderr and exits with EXIT_FAILURE status." But then I remembered we're in messy-syntax-land of PHP.

In PHP, exit() and die() are identical.

The designers obviously thought "Hmm, let's borrow exit() from C. And Perl folks probably will like it if we take die() as is from Perl too. Oops! We have two exit functions now! Let's make it so that they both can take a string or integer as an argument and make them identical!"

The end result is that this didn't really make things any "easier", just more confusing. C and Perl coders will continue to use exit() to toss an integer exit value only, and die() to toss an error message and exit with a failure. Newbies and PHP-as-a-first-language people will probably wonder "umm, two exit functions, which one should I use?" The manual doesn't explain why there's exit() and die().

In general, PHP has a lot of weird redundancy like this - it tries to be friendly to people who come from different language backgrounds, but while doing so, it creates confusing redundancy.