What's the `finally` keyword for in PHP?

Question

Consider these two examples

<?php
function throw_exception() {
    // Arbitrary code here
    throw new Exception('Hello, Joe!');
}

function some_code() {
    // Arbitrary code here
}

try {
    throw_exception();
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

some_code();

// More arbitrary code
?>

and

<?php
function throw_exception() {
    // Arbitrary code here
    throw new Exception('Hello, Joe!');
}

function some_code() {
    // Arbitrary code here
}

try {
    throw_exception();
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
} finally {
    some_code();
}

// More arbitrary code
?>

What's the difference? Is there a situation where the first example wouldn't execute some_code(), but the second would? Am I missing the point entirely?

Answer 1

If you catch Exception (any exception) the two code samples are equivalent. But if you only handle some specific exception type in your class block and another kind of exception occurs, then some_code(); will only be executed if you have a finally block.

try {
    throw_exception();
} catch (ExceptionTypeA $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
}

some_code(); // Will not execute if throw_exception throws an ExceptionTypeB

but:

try {
    throw_exception();
} catch (ExceptionTypeA $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
} finally {
    some_code(); // Will be execute even if throw_exception throws an ExceptionTypeB
}